With the start of the Indian Premier League season a matter of hours away there is just enough time to delve into the IPL 2024 top bowler market, one which is congested with the best bowlers in the world game on show in the tournament.
One man who won’t be involved though is the Purple Cap winner from last season in Mohammad Shami. Injury has ruled him out so there is the opportunity for one of the other great bowlers in the tournament to shine.
Recent Winners
2023 – Mohammad Shami
2022 – Yuzvendra Chahal
2021 – Harshal Patel
2020 – Kagiso Rabada
2019 – Imran Tahir
2018 – Andrew Tye
2017 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar
2016 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar
2015 – Dwayne Bravo
2014 – Mohit Sharma
Market Leaders
Jasprit Bumrah looks to have his injury issues behind him now and he is the 10/1 favourite to be the leading bowler this season. That makes sense but when you look at the roll of honour over the last 10 seasons you don’t see his name on it. One of the reasons for that is because he plays at the Wankhede Stadium which is a bit of a graveyard for the bowlers. That is enough to put me off him but the fact there is a T20 World Cup a couple of weeks after this event makes me think India might like his workload managed so he isn’t for me.
We have a pair of second favourites to take the Purple Cap home with them this season. They are the overseas duo of Rashid Khan and a Mitchell Starc who is appearing in the competition for the first time since 2015. With Starc, you never know how his body will hold up or whether Australia want him managed with the World Cup in mind. Rashid Khan is a known force now and teams look to sit on him so neither of them really appeal to me.
Mohammed Siraj is next in the betting at 14/1. He was in the top 10 last season with 19 wickets and you would imagine there is no reason why he would be any worse this term. I always have a problem with bowlers who play on these smaller grounds though because while mishits can get wickets on some grounds that isn’t really the case at the Chinnaswamy and over the course of a season that could count him out a touch. I’m also not convinced Bangalore reach the finals.
The only other bowler in the market who is shorter than 20/1 in the betting is Yuzvendra Chahal. He was the leading wicket taker in the competition for the Rajasthan Royals when they made the final a couple of seasons ago and was fifth in a more disappointing campaign for the men in pink last time around. The only issue I would have with backing him is three of the last four Purple Cap winners were seamers. The year he won it the tournament was restricted to four venues because of Covid and the pitches tired.
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Profile
As with the batsmen it is important to whittle the field down here too. We’re looking at more than 40 runners overall in this market and that is just too many to select from. Like we did with the batsmen, we can start by getting rid of any team we don’t think will make the play-offs and concentrate on the ones that do. That halves the number immediately and then there is one more filter to apply.
That comes in the form of whether to pick a seamer or a spinner. Usually in this part of the world the common perception is that we would want to be on spin but Imran Tahir ended a run of eight years where seamers were the top bowler in this tournament in 2019 and Chahal was the winner two seasons ago but it was a year where the tournament was condensed to four venues which tired over 70 matches. So it is a seamer for us and then the ideal situation is they bowl at the death where the cheap wickets are.
Betting
The top three bowlers last season all came from the Gujarat Titans. We already know that Mohammad Shami won’t be winning the Purple Cap again so it might be that one of the men who came second to him in Mohit Sharma is the man to pick up the pieces. He played three matches fewer than Shami and bowled in three innings fewer yet was only one wicket behind him at the end so it stands to reason that had he played the full season it would have been Sharma not Shami collecting the cap as the leading bowler.
That doesn’t really surprise me because Gujarat have a couple of quality Afghanistan spinners who are very hard to score against, especially in Ahmedabad where the pitches can suit them so if teams fail to get after them then the seamers have to go. Also if Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad can take a couple of wickets in the middle overs, Sharma will be bowling at weaker batters at the end of the innings where he excels. Teams will know they have to get ahead of the Titans in the powerplay though and that might lead to them taking more risks against Sharma. He feels a big price at 25/1 on the five places.
Tips
Back M.Sharma Top Season Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-5)
Back him here:
