5 players who can win the Orange Cap in IPL 2023

The 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will commence with the incumbent champions Gujarat Titans (GT) clashing with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on March 31. The tournament shifts to its original home-away format after three seasons where it had to take place in a restricted capacity due to rules and relegations pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Top contenders for Orange Cap in IPL 2023

On that note, batsmen from across the world will be delighting spectators in different cities with their incredible skillsets and here CricBlog predicts the five topmost contenders to win the Orange Cap in the coming campaign.

Shubman Gill

The 21-year-old opener has been in sublime form this year, notching centuries at will and even bringing up his maiden ton in One Day Internationals (ODIs) against New Zealand in January. He reached the three-figure mark in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Ahmedabad and will be heading into the IPL with supreme confidence on his calibre.

Gill played an instrumental role in steering Gujarat Titans (GT) to the IPL title last year and he will again be gearing to optimise his recent form and pull off something miraculous by winning consecutive campaigns with the franchise.

KL Rahul

Rahul is undergoing a patchy run of form presently but he always manages to turn up quite well for his team in the IPL. The 31-year-old scored 616 runs in the Lucknow Super Giants’ third-place finish in the league last year and he will be looking to spark a new turnaround in his international career through some defining performances in the IPL.

His match-winning half-century in the first ODI against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium demonstrated that Rahul can gradually regain his touch back and the coming IPL presents him the ideal opportunity to do so and recover back his lost spot in the national team XI.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli last won the Orange Cap in IPL 2016 when he had a record-breaking run, scoring 974 runs en route the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) runners-up finish in the season. Since then, the former India skipper has arguably blown hot and cold in the tournament. However, the 34-year-old has successfully managed to recover from his long slump in form with five international tons, spanning across all three formats, since September 2022.

Kohli appears to be in a very good space with both the bat as well as in his mind currently and could use that as a driving factor towards leading the RCB to their first-ever IPL title and even emerging as the prospective highest run-scorer in the coming campaign.

Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler lit up the previous season by spearheading the Rajasthan Royals (RR) to the finals. He scored four centuries and notched 863 runs across 17 innings in the season. Buttler dominated every bowling unit that came up against him and has since then gone on to even win the T20 World Cup with England.

Buttler is still at the prime of his career and there is no reason why he cannot replicate the season that he underwent last time around. It will be imperative that he commences the campaign on a strong note and builds up from there, something that he has done multiple times in the past already.

David Warner

Champions often thrive when confronted with challenges. David Warner has not been in best of form for Australia in recent times. He even underwent a pretty disappointing tour to India and missed the last two Tests and most of the limited-overs leg due to an injury.

However, he has recently been elevated to the captaincy role by Delhi Capitals and Warner can very well use that as a stimulant to fire back in form with the bat.

He has arguably been the greatest overseas batsman to have graced the IPL with consistency that few others could boast of with the bat. He notched 432 runs last time around but will need to be around for his side in a greater capacity with the willow considering the absence of Rishabh Pant.