The Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen many a great ply their trade for different franchises over the years. While some like Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, and Sanath Jayasuriya lit up the league only towards the fag end of their career, the league has also provided many a platform from where they have gone on to achieve greatness. With the start of the tournament the race for the Orange Cap also begins and by the end of the tournament, it is duly placed on the head of the highest scorer of the tournament.
However, no matter in what form batsmen are before the tournament and how big their reputations are, the IPL Orange Cap winner has been mostly a surprise, just like Shaun Marsh, who was a little-known quantity in 2008, surprised everyone by ending the inaugural season as the highest run-getter. As a result, some batsmen, despite their consistency and exploits with the bat, have missed out on being the Orange Cap holder.
With Virat Kohli set to win the Orange Cap this season, we take a look the ones who have not:
1) Rohit Sharma
The Mumbai Indians captain made his India debut just a season before the IPL kicked off in 2008 and was snapped up by Deccan Chargers in the auctions. Although Deccan Chargers finished with the Wooden Spoon, the flashy right-hander had made a mark for himself and went on to play a crucial role in helping the Gilchrist led Deccan Chargers to lift the trophy next season.
His move to Mumbai saw him improve as a batsman under Sachin Tendulkar and once the Little Master hung up his boots, he led the Mumbai batting and went on to lead the team from the front to two IPL titles. However, as surprising as it may sound, despite being the third overall highest scorer in the tournament’s history( just behind Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina) Sharma has not even featured in the list of top five run-getters in the eight previous seasons.
2) Suresh Raina
Virat Kohli might have displaced Suresh Raina from his throne as the highest IPL run scorer with his dream run this season, the left hander’s contribution in the success of now suspended Chennai Super Kings can’t be forgotten. Raina, despite playing alongside big names like Hayden and Hussey, held his own and scored heavily every season for the Dhoni-led team.
Raina finished in the list of top 5 run getters in 4 seasons and had the privilege of wearing the Orange Cap on a number of occasions throughout the season, but could never end the season as its owner. And it is not only the Indian Premier League, Suresh Raina sits at the top of run charts even in the now defunct Champions League T20 with 842 runs. Yet, he never managed to finish as the highest run-getter in any of the 6 seasons of CLT20 either.
3) Gautam Gambhir
In between his World Cup winning 75 in 2007 and another World Cup-winning 97 in 2011, Gautam Gambhir served the Delhi Daredevils well by forming a formidable partnership at the top with Virender Sehwag for the first three seasons. Post World Cup 2011 though, the southpaw had big shoes to fill after he was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the 4th season of the Premier League to replace the crowd favorite Sourav Ganguly.
Not only did he lift the franchise from shambles to two titles, Gambhir gave the East Indian side solid starts as well, first with Jacques Kallis and later with Robin Uthappa as they piled on more than 300 runs every season after joining KKR. He finished second on the list of highest run-getters in KKR’s winning campaign of 2012, scoring 590 runs at an average of nearly 40. But this was also the same season when the big Jamaican Chris Gayle ran amok and amassed 733 runs for Bangalore, which meant Gambhir finished the tournament with the silverware but not the Orange Cap.
4) AB De Villiers
For all the things he has shown he can do with the bat in his hand, it comes as a little surprise that AB De Villiers has never managed to end an IPL season donning the Orange Cap. During his stint with Delhi Daredevils, De Villiers shone in 2009 when the IPL was held in South Africa and it was on the back of his 465 runs in 15 matches that Delhi stormed into the Semis.
However, it is as a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore setup that ABD has really come into his own. De Villiers has managed an average of more than 34 in every season post 2011 and has lit up the tournament with his unorthodox shot-making, especially in the last two seasons. Despite being placed at number 3 in the batting charts this season with more than 600 runs, De Villiers has little chance of making the Orange Cap his own, all thanks to his Skipper’s phenomenal run.
5) Shikhar Dhawan
In the inaugural season of IPL, Shikhar Dhawan turned up for the Delhi franchise and with his Delhi mates Viru and Gauti, formed the top 3 that gave headaches to opposition bowlers. The move to Mumbai Indians, however, resulted in two forgettable seasons for the southpaw. However, fortunes changed drastically for Dhawan when he started opening for Hyderabad, first for the Deccan Chargers and later for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Dhawan hasn’t looked back since and has been an epitome of consistency, amassing more than 300 runs every season. It was his exploits at the top of the order in the 4th and 5th season of IPL that brought him back on the radar of the selectors and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands with a record-breaking century on test debut.
Despite all his heroics and consistency for Hyderabad, the Delhi dasher has never finished the tournament as the highest run-getter. He scored 569 runs in the 2012 season but finished third behind Gayle and Gambhir in the batting charts.
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