The defending holder has a target on his back. The all-time leading scorer wants a third cap. A man with a point to prove is finally getting 16 matches instead of 14. And a teenager who scored 252 runs at a strike rate of 206 in his debut season is about to face bowlers who have spent a year studying him.
IPL 2026 is the longest edition in the tournament’s history — 84 matches, 16 games per team, full double round-robin. More matches means more opportunities to pile up runs, which means the Orange Cap race in 2026 could produce numbers we have not seen since Virat Kohli’s historic 973-run season in 2016. Here are the five players most likely to be wearing it come 31 May.
1. Yashasvi Jaiswal (Rajasthan Royals)
Aakash Chopra has already made his pick publicly, and it is hard to argue with him. Jaiswal scored 559 runs in IPL 2025 — a strong return, but one overshadowed by Sai Sudharsan’s 759. The difference was partly circumstance: Jaiswal batted in a Rajasthan Royals side that lacked structure around him, with Sanju Samson missing large portions of the season through injury.
In 2026, everything changes. Samson is gone to CSK, and Jaiswal is now unambiguously RR’s main man. As Faf du Plessis pointed out ahead of the season, Jaiswal previously had the freedom to play his natural game because Samson was consistently delivering runs at the other end — that safety net no longer exists. More responsibility will be placed on Jaiswal, but more opportunity comes with it. Chopra believes he can push 700 to 900 runs this season. With 16 matches and a team built around him, the conditions are right.
2. Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)
The argument for Kohli is simple: 657 runs in 2025, third-highest overall behind Sudharsan and Suryakumar Yadav. He finished as RCB’s highest run-getter in their title-winning campaign, averaged 54.75, and struck at 144.71. At 37, going into what many expect to be one of his final IPL seasons, Kohli’s hunger has rarely looked sharper. He told RCB teammates in their first training session: “We must give our 120 per cent for these two and a half months. Don’t waste even a minute.”
He has won the Orange Cap twice — in 2016 and 2024. His 973-run record from 2016 remains the highest ever in a single IPL season. In an expanded 16-game format, the ingredients for a third cap are all present — form, motivation, and the platform of opening for a strong batting side.
3. Sai Sudharsan (Gujarat Titans)
The defending champion enters IPL 2026 as the man everyone else is chasing. His 759 runs in 2025 were the most in a season since Kohli’s 973 in 2016, and his consistency — he crossed 40 runs nine times across the tournament — was as impressive as the headline figure. At 23, he is entering the phase of his career where IPL seasons can be truly dominant.
The question for Sudharsan is whether 2025 was a one-off or the beginning of a pattern. History suggests that Orange Cap winners rarely repeat — but with Shubman Gill alongside him at the top and a Gujarat Titans side built for batting, the platform for a big season is unchanged. Two consecutive 700-plus run seasons in the IPL would be extraordinary. Sudharsan is capable of it.
4. Ishan Kishan (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
The most improved batter in this list. After missing two IPL seasons following his controversial absence from domestic cricket in 2023-24, Kishan returned a transformed player. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26, he was the leading run-scorer with 517 runs at a strike rate of 197.32, including two centuries. In the T20 World Cup 2026, he finished as India’s second-highest run-scorer with 317 runs.
In his first season back at SRH, Kishan managed 354 runs but maintained an impressive strike rate of 152 throughout. In 2026, he arrives with a truckload of T20 runs behind him — 1,403 since the start of IPL 2025 — and a place at the top of one of the most attack-minded batting line-ups in the competition. If the conditions at Hyderabad favour batters, Kishan could make a serious run at the cap.
5. Suryakumar Yadav (Mumbai Indians)
The man they call SKY had the best IPL season of his career in 2025 — 717 runs at a strike rate of 167.92 and an average of 65.18. That tally would have won the Orange Cap in most previous seasons. In 2025, it was only good enough for second place behind Sudharsan, which is itself a measure of how competitive the race has become.
In an expanded 16-match format that rewards volume as much as strike rate, Suryakumar’s combination of both is dangerous. He is captaining India in T20Is, suggesting his standing in the format is as high as it has ever been. If he can translate his World Cup form — he led India to their third T20 World Cup triumph — into a full IPL campaign, a first Orange Cap is well within reach.
Our pick: Yashasvi Jaiswal
More matches, a bigger role, no safety net — and the hunger of someone who has come agonisingly close before. If there is one batter in IPL 2026 with both the talent and the circumstances to finally break through and claim the Orange Cap, it is Jaiswal.