Orange Cap is one of the most prestigious awards in the Indian Premier League. The player who scores the most number of runs in an IPL season takes the Orange Cap award home. Over the last 14 years, some of the best batters in world cricket like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Michael Hussey, Matthew Hayden, David Warner and others have won this award.
While the award goes to the highest run-getter at the end of a particular IPL season, there have been some players who held the cap in the middle of the season but never won it. Here’s a list of five such famous players.
1. Nitish Rana – IPL 2017 and 2021
Left-handed Indian batter Nitish Rana has owned the IPL Orange Cap twice in his career so far. He held it for the first time during the 2017 season when he was a part of the Mumbai Indians squad. Four years later, he was number one on the batting leaderboard again while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders.
2. Gautam Gambhir – IPL 2017
Gautam Gambhir held the cap on April 28, 2017, when Kolkata Knight Riders congratulated him for becoming the number one batter on the leaderboard. At that time, he had 376 runs in nine games of IPL 2017.
3. Ishan Kishan – IPL 2022
Mumbai Indians star Ishan Kishan held the Orange Cap for a brief while in the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. He started the season well could not end at the top.
4. Andre Russell – IPL 2022
One of the biggest hitters in IPL history, Andre Russell was once the highest run-scorer in IPL 2022. He held the Orange Cap, while his KKR teammate Umesh Yadav owned the Purple Cap.
5. Ajinkya Rahane – IPL 2015
Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane was in top form during the 2015 IPL season. He could have won his maiden Orange Cap award but fell short by just 22 runs eventually.
