The T20 format has gained immense popularity in this world mainly because of the several T20 leagues and tournaments worldwide. Among all the leagues, IPL has had the most popular since its inaugural year, 2008. This is because here people can witness great batters with lots of runs, top bowlers with numerous wickets under their belt and some great fielding efforts.
In the 15 years of IPL history, people have witnessed several young bowlers who have turned out greats over the years for their teams along with several top experienced bowlers who had lit up the season with great performances. The common quality among all these bowlers is their ability to take wickets regularly and during crucial moments for their respective franchises.
This post is about those top bowlers who had lit up the whole tournament to the next level for years. One can check update about cricket of these bowlers at any time.
- Lasith Malinga: The veteran pacer from Sri Lanka and one of the greats in the death overs of a match, Lasith Malinga is the first player featured on this list.
His round-arm bowling action made him one of the unique bowlers with great ability to bowl during the toughest overs. His unique ability made him one the great bowler of IPL history and the 2011 season was the greatest season in his IPL career. That season he won the Purple Cap because of taking the most wickets among all, 28 wickets from just 16 matches.
In the year 2008, Malinga started playing in the IPL for the Mumbai Indians team and from then he never changed his team, later he became the frontline bowler of his side. In 2013, against the Punjab Kings team, Malinga took his 100th IPL wicket and became the first to achieve this target in IPL history.
- Dwayne Bravo: The second player featured on this list is the great Caribbean all-rounder, Dwayne Bravo who was known for his great bowling skills and aggressive batting in the lower order.
During his time he was known for his great death-bowling skills and he also started playing in the IPL for the Mumbai team for 3 years. Later he moved to the Chennai Super Kings team and there he became a key member of the team for several years.
Bravo was well-known for his deceptive slow bowling and accurate yorkers which made the batter frustrated because of not scoring enough runs against him. He is the only player to date who achieve Purple Cap 2 times in his career for taking the most number of wickets in a season.
- Amit Mishra: The veteran leg-spinner from India, Amit Mishra is one of the great spinners in the entire IPL circuit. With several wickets under his belt, Mishra is the only bowler in the IPL with the most number of hattricks.
In his entire IPL career, 2013 was the most notated one. To date, he played 154 IPL matches and there he took 166 wickets. Right now, Amit Mishra is 40 years old and is on the verge of retiring from all types of cricket.
- Piyush Chawla: One of the most talented leg-spinners from India with a great ability to take wickets regularly, Piyush Chawla is the fourth player on this list.
In his whole IPL career, Piyush played for various teams but his notable performances came when he was with Kolkata Knight Riders. He was a very important member of the side when the team won IPL trophies in 2012 and 2014.
Chawla is a very handy player as he can be a perfect wicket-taking option and also he is pretty handy with the bat in the lower order. This makes him one of the most valuable players in the IPL. From 165 matches that he played, Piyush took 157 IPL wickets.
- Harbhajan Singh: The most experienced spin bowler in this entire list, Harbhajan Singh was even the former captain of the Mumbai Indians team and helped them to win the Champions League in the year 2011.
His IPL career was brilliant as he took 150 wickets from 163 IPL matches, most of which came for the Mumbai team. Harbhajan was also in the team India which won the 2011 World Cup and he was the frontline with the ball.
Harbhajan ended his IPL career in 2021 playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders team and there his performance was pretty good.
- Sunil Narine: One of the most versatile and talented all-rounders from the West Indies, Sunil Narine is 6th on this list. He started playing IPL in the 2011 season for the Kolkata Knight Riders team and is still the most important member of the side. In his entire career, Narine played over 300 T20 matches for different teams and leagues.
- Narine started his IPL career as a mystery spinner but later he improved his batting ability and even started playing as an opener for the KKR team. To date, Narine won the Valuable Player award twice because of his sheer contribution to the team in the whole season.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The only player who is currently playing for the Indian international squad is featured 7th on this list. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a very experienced medium pacer with a good ability to swing the ball both ways, plays for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team for several years now.
For the team, he is a very effective bowler both during the powerplays and during the end overs and when wickets are required most, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the name that the captain usually looks for. Though recently his performance has dipped quite a bit because of several injuries that he has had to face in recent times.
In IPL, several bowlers severed their teams for years but these players have stood out because of their performances for years. Most of the players in this list have got retired or in the verge of retirement but their contribution towards making this league famous can never be forgotten.
