The Best IPL Players Ever
The IPL is the richest in cricket - the value of the competition comes in at an astonishing $6.3billion. All that money sloshing around attracts the game's most prominent players - but who is the best to have played for a franchise in the IPL?
It's a classic debate that rings around restaurants, parks, and cricket clubhouses all over the world - and we're going to draft our argument as to the best bowler, batsman, wicket-keeper, and fielder to grace from an IPL betting perspective.
Read on for your full breakdown of Pure Win's best IPL players of all time!
Best IPL Batsman: Virat Kohli
Even without the sizeable pull of this man's reputation, Kohli scoops our title as the best batsman to ever grace the IPL. To be honest, this one wasn't too difficult!
The charismatic, competitive Indian icon backs up his brash self-belief with scintillating figures. Since the competition began in 2008, he has hit more runs than anyone else - his nearest competitor is Shikhar Dhawan, who lies a full 499 runs behind him, having played eight fewer innings than him.
He is the highest-paid IPL cricketer currently, and with good reason.
Here are some of his most eye-opening stats:
He has five IPL centuries to his name - second only to Chris Gayle in terms of the number of centuries.
In 2016, he hit a mammoth 973 runs - ending with an average of 81.08.
He boasts a healthy IPL strike rate of 129.94.
His numbers are even starker when you consider he has led a largely unsuccessful Royal Challengers Bangalore team since 2013.
Best IPL Bowler: Lasith Malinga
You can't look past the unorthodox, unmistakable, irreplaceable slinger!
The now-retired Lasith Malinga is widely renowned as the world's finest limited-overs bowler - he was a vital component of Sri Lanka's inaugural Twenty20 World Cup win in 2014. Still, you need to cast an eye over his phenomenal IPL record to appreciate how he is such a master of his craft.
He is the leading wicket-taker in IPL history - but one can define his career by moments of his brilliance. Sometimes it pays to look beyond the stats. Here are the top three Lasith Malinga moments:
Helping Mumbai Indians defend 149 in the 2019 IPL final, Malinga took two wickets in two balls in a devastating opening spell to aid his side to victory.
In April 2011, the Slinger took five wickets for 13 runs to help dismiss the Dehli Daredevils for just 95 runs. These remain his best-ever bowling stats.
In the first match of the 2014 IPL tournament, Malinga took four wickets for 23 from four overs in a destructive performance with the cherry in hand.
Best IPL Wicket-Keeper: MS Dhoni
Who else? The Chennai Super Kings skipper is the second-most successful captain in IPL history, leading his team to four titles. Only Rohit Sharma has won more as captain of the Mumbai Indians.
A cricketing legend in India, he has hit 4,746 runs at an average of 39.55 in the IPL. He has hit 141 sixes in the death overs (overs 17-20), the most in the IPL. But what of his wicket-keeping record?
Here are his headline stats:
He has 161 dismissals in IPL history, the highest number for wicket-keepers in the IPL.
Of those 161 dismissals, 122 were catches, and 39 were stumpings - the highest number for each category in the IPL.
In April 2013, he collected three catches and one stumping in one innings for the Super Kings against the Royal Challengers Bangalore - the joint second-most in IPL history.
Best IPL Fielder: AB de Villiers
The South African star has eons of respect from the international cricketing fraternity, but mainly due to his batting and wicket-keeping exploits.
In the IPL, however - he is a demon in the field. Sharp as a tac on run-outs, he also boasts serious catching skills - as evidenced here:
He has 90 catches from 184 matches. At 0.692 catches per week, he has the highest catch per inning ratio in the tournament's history
Conclusion
There have been a lot of legendary cricket players down through the past 14 years of the IPL - let's see what online cricket betting on IPL 2022 has in store for us!
