The Goodies: IPL 2026 League Stage Awards

Can you win an award named after you? Apparently, you can.

There have been a lot of IPL matches, and it is okay if you can’t remember them all, what with all the talk of handshakes. But we watched all of them. And we remember at least most of them.

And as we like to do here, we want to give out awards for the best players in the IPL this year. We hate the caps, because they make little sense. So we’ve come up with our own ideas, and we hand out imaginary trophies.

So these are the goodies, given out to those who deserve them for being awesome.

You, and they, have earned them.

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Most Improved Player: Ishan Kishan, Devdutt Padikkal, Washington Sundar (the batter), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kartik Tyagi & Jason Holder

Kartik Tyagi remodelled his action and led the KKR pace attack. Jason Holder is almost like a middle overs cheat code for GT, and it’s his best ever IPL with the ball.

Washington Sundar has never been as productive with the bat in the league. Nitish’s improved speed, his spin-hitting has been incredible and he’s also improved versus the quicks. We covered Ishan Kishan’s coming of age in more detail during the T20 World Cup. But this has definitely been his best IPL season.

While Devdutt Padikkal had started his improvement arc from last season itself, this year is simply the best he’s ever batted in the competition. And that’s why he takes home this unprestigious Goodies award.

Best new ball bowler (The Bhuvi): Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kagiso Rabada, Jofra Archer, Mohammed Siraj, AM Ghazanfar & Mohammed Shami

We named this award after Bhuvi, because we wanted to give him his flowers as he was nearing the end of his career. And then he only had this year.

He was not the only good new ball bowler, each of the first four names are potentially having an all-time great powerplay year. AM Ghazanfar makes it for being the standout spinner, while Shami also was a reason why LSG were a hard bowling team to go up against in the first six.

I think Bhuvneshwar Kumar just pips Kagiso Rabada for the award named after him, as he’s saving more runs and yet striking very frequently.

Can you win an award named after you? Apparently, you can.

Best middle overs bowler (The Rashid): Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Jamie Overton, Jason Holder & Eshan Malinga

The Rashid is the best middle overs bowler, and even though he’s not at his best anymore, he still makes the cut. His fellow Afghan spinner was also really vital for CSK. Nobody could score off the KKR duo, and nobody could catch off Yuzvendra Chahal. This is also a productive time for almost all the top-level SLAs.

We’ve got a bunch of quicks who also really nailed this part of the game. But Jamie Overton stands out the most on our true stats.

What were the odds of that before the season began?

Best death bowler (The Bumrah): Lungi Ngidi, Jofra Archer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Jamie Overton, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Anshul Kamboj, Sakib Hussain, Josh Hazlewood & Rasikh Salam

Once again, the award namesake makes this list. It’s easily Jasprit Bumrah’s worst IPL season in the last decade, but still nobody is able to score off him at the end of games. Lungi Ngidi had the best true economy, and Jofra Archer and Bhuvneshwar Kumar didn't destroy teams just at the top.

Vaibhav Arora is the wildcard here, for we’ve always taken him to be mainly a new ball option. Josh Hazlewood’s new ball bowling hasn’t been like last time, but he’s been solid in the final four overs. RCB’s Rasikh Salam has also slowed teams down, and taken wickets - making the defending champions an effective death-bowling unit. Sakib Hussain is another find - he has been great with his change of pace. Jamie Overton carries over his middle overs work here. Anshul Kamboj and Kartik Tyagi have taken heaps of wickets.

But the winner is Lungi Ngidi, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar just missing out.

Best bowler (Real purple cap): Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kagiso Rabada, Jofra Archer, Sunil Narine, Eshan Malinga, Jamie Overton, Sakib Hussain & Jason Holder

Interestingly, we don’t have standout spinners this year apart from the evergreen Sunil Narine. And we can clearly see two separate profiles of pacers here. But I think it’ll be gross injustice if Bhuvneshwar Kumar doesn’t take home this award, simply because we’ve often seen guys with most wickets take huge chunks of them at the death. I think Archer is the next-best overall. Bhuvi didn’t go far from being the first bowler in two of three phases and overall.

Best all-rounder (The Dre Russ): Nitish Kumar Reddy, Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Cameron Green & Jamie Overton

We’ve not actually had too many players bowl and bat at least 50 balls this year and do well. This category has been impact subbed. We’ve picked most of those guys here. I think this has to be Nitish Kumar Reddy, with Krunal Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja not far behind.

He got quicker, and started hitting sixes versus pace. Quite the upgrade.

Best hitter (The Gayle): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Finn Allen, Priyansh Arya, Abhishek Sharma, Tim David & Rajat Patidar

After years of Chris Gayle being an absolute outlier when it came to hitting sixes, we now have the 15-year-old wunderkind decimating the best bowlers in the world. Priyansh Arya has also been an incredible powerplay basher, while Rajat Patidar and Tim David do in the middle and death overs. Abhishek Sharma has been really consistent with his hitting, which in itself is rare to pull off. Finn Allen has also destroyed teams on his day.

But we have to be joking if anyone other than Vaibhav Sooryavanshi wins this.

Best player of pace (The ABD): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Sai Sudharsan, Abhishek Sharma, Priyansh Arya & Prabhsimran Singh

You think of the best pacers in the league, and almost every single one of them has been taken down by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. But hey, we have someone on the other end of the experience scale in Virat Kohli. He has been strong as ever with his classical style of play against the new ball, and has kept up the momentum in the middle overs too. His team’s No.3, Devdutt Padikkal, also stepped up.

Ishan Kishan is the other No.3 who makes it, and he was really good across all three phases. Rajat Patidar performed in the middle and death overs versus the quicks, while Tim David dominated them at the end. Sai Sudharasan deserves a mention for not getting out to them at an above par true SR too.

Abhishek Sharma is a must for his powerplay bashing, and Priyansh Arya had the ability to impact games against the quicks in an incredibly short period of time. Arya’s opening partner Prabhsimran Singh also made it work at the top, the two often breaking games early.

But the ultimate winner, of course, is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Best work vs spin (The Yusuf): Abhishek Sharma, Cooper Connolly, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Shreyas Iyer & KL Rahul

For The Yusuf, we’ve got heaps of players that have dominated against spin in their own ways. Abhishek Sharma is the most ruthless overall, while Cooper Connolly, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Ishan Kishan are all really impressive too. Heinrich Klaasen, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul all play it really well and go at above average rates, but they don’t score at outlier speeds. I think this one’s between Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill, and just because the former smashes it so much more without getting out a lot, he wins it.

Best powerplay batter (The Warner): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Priyansh Arya, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Prabhsimran Singh & Devdutt Padikkal

The first cluster is the lunatic left-handers who scored at ground-breaking rates in the first six overs. Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli are more conventional batters that go at a healthy strike rate and have a repeatable formula for success against the hard, new ball. In fact, Gill has certainly worked on it, and is lofting the ball more. Prabhsimran Singh’s partnership with Priyansh Arya was the main reason for Punjab’s first half success. And Devdutt Padikkal has been a No.3 that’s performed really well when he’s in after a wicket in the powerplay.

But again, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is just a level above everyone else, with Abhishek in second place.

Best middle overs batter (The Raina-AB): KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Cooper Connolly, Rajat Patidar, Heinrich Klaasen & Shreyas Iyer

Now there’s two types of middle overs beasts. The likes of KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill are openers who actually really maximize this period. But we’ve got a cluster of non-opening middle overs legends as well. Heinrich Klaasen’s consistency has genuinely been unmatched, while Rajat Patidar and Ishan Kishan are dangerous at their best. And you do not want Shreyas Iyer in this phase when his team is chasing 10 RPO; it’s his bread and butter. Plus, Punjab also had Cooper Connolly doing well.

But I think I like Ishan Kishan’s case the most, because he’s destructive but also really repeatable at what he does. So he wins the award that’s half-named after his first IPL captain.

Best finisher (The Dhoni): Tim David, Donovan Ferreria, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ashutosh Sharma, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar & Marcus Stoinis

Finishing as a specialist skill can always be tricky, because you may or may not get enough deliveries in the middle. I really liked these guys as most of them were able to impact multiple games in this period. Washington Sundar is the big surprise here, while Rinku Singh perhaps bailed his team out the most.

But I think it’s between Tim David and Donovan Ferreira, and the former just about gets it.

Best batter (Real orange cap): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Sai Sudharsan & Shubman Gill

I’ve gone with two attacking outliers that have also managed to breach the 500-mark in the league stage. Ishan Kishan is more of a bridge, but he’s played some real high-quality knocks. Heinrich Klaasen has played in a completely different manner from the last three years, but he’s really raised the floor and even attacked hard on his best day. Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill aren’t massively different from other elite accumulators, but the way GT are set up, they desperately need runs from those two.

But once again, this piece is an excuse for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to sweep as many awards as possible.

Best newcomer (The Vaibhav): Cooper Connolly, Finn Allen, Kartik Sharma, Sakib Hussain, AM Ghazanfar, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja

And finally, the last award of the year is named after the young star himself. What he did in just seven games of IPL 2025 was genuinely unprecedented. We’ve got three internationals in Cooper Connolly, AM Ghazanfar and Finn Allen, even though the latter has been around the league but never actually gotten an opportunity until this time. Kartik Sharma has shown a lot of promise, even though his game is still in development. Yash Raj Punja is a young and tall leggie that has picked up wickets without conceding too many runs. Brijesh Sharma has been at his best through the middle overs.

But Sakib has been the find of the season with the ball, and I don’t think anyone else playing their first IPL this time has impressed more.

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Those were the Goodies for this year. Will any of the winners be in contention next season too? You would think so, given how well some of them have done. And maybe they’ll do it well enough to have one of the awards named after them too.