News from Ahmedabad first. Gujarat Titans edged Kolkata Knight Riders with two balls to spare on Friday night, and the win has shuffled the individual leader-boards just as much as the points table.
Orange Cap – the batters
Almost out of the blue, especially given he sat out one fixture, Shubman Gill now tops the run-scorers’ list. His 86 from 50 deliveries – Player of the Match, no argument – pushed him to 251 runs for the season, 23 clear of Virat Kohli. That’s three half-centuries on the bounce for Gill (70, 56, 86 after an opening 39) and, while the strike-rate of 154.93 is a touch lower than you’d like in the power-play era, it still keeps him marginally ahead of Kohli’s 158.33.
Heinrich Klaasen sits third with 214 at 142.67, and then comes the more explosive stuff. Rajat Patidar has 222 at a head-spinning 213.46, while Ishan Kishan’s 213 runs have arrived at 190.17. There’s a small 200-club already: Prabhsimran Singh (211), Shreyas Iyer (203), Jos Buttler (201) and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (200 even).
Ian Bishop nailed it on the host broadcast: “Gill has tried to take his aggression up to another level.” Ambati Rayudu nodded along; the numbers back them both up.
Purple Cap – the bowlers
No change at the very top. Prasidh Krishna, last year’s leading wicket-taker, grabbed 1 for 32 against KKR and now owns 11 wickets in five outings. Chennai’s Anshul Kamboj follows on ten, with Prince Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi a wicket behind that pair. Five others – Jofra Archer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya, Vaibhav Arora and Friday’s three-for man Kagiso Rabada – are bunched on seven.
Key supporting stats
• Best batting strike-rates: Patidar 213.46, Kishan 190.17
• Most sixes: Gill, Kohli and Patidar all into double figures already
• Tightest economy: Archer’s 6.28 stands out in a season trending above eight an over
• Sharpest bowling strike-rate: Bishnoi takes a wicket every 10.4 balls, handy on any surface
Early conclusions, though it is very early
Gill’s timing – both literal and figurative – looks sharper than at this point last season. Kohli remains in the slipstream and, you sense, comfortable there. On the bowling front, Krishna has rediscovered the fuller length that brought him joy in 2025; if he stays fit, the others are chasing.
Plenty of cricket left; plenty of shuffling still to come. For now, Gill wears the orange and Krishna stays purple.
