Rabada leads Purple Cap race, Gill rises on Orange Cap table at IPL 2026

As expected, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Gujarat Titans (GT) game on Saturday night in IPL 2026 gave us plenty to talk about when it comes to the Orange. Purple Cap tables. Here's why.

Move over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Anshul Kamboj. Kagiso Rabada is here, and right on top of the wicket-takers' table after picking up two wickets. He is on 18 strikes now, moving up steadily and looking more and more threatening with each passing game.

Familiar territory for Rabada, who won the Purple Cap in 2020, when playing for Delhi Capitals (DC). Then. he got 30 wickets, one of only three times a bowler has picked up 30 or more wickets in an IPL season.

RR's Jofra Archer, who had a shot at moving up the table, too, had a wicketless night,. that means it's Rabada at No. 1, followed by Bhuvneshwar. Kamboj, of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), respectively, at 17 wickets apiece. They are followed by Prince Yadav of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Eshan Malinga of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at 16 each, and a brand-new name near the top: Rashid Khan, at No. 6. The GT legspinner's four-wicket haul against RR lifted him to 15 wickets for the season, the same as Archer,. at a better economy rate: 8.26 to 9.12.

But it's double-header Sunday, with CSK vs LSG,. RCB vs Mumbai Indians (MI), so a lot could change within 24 hours.

On the run-getters' table, there was no change in the top three of Heinrich Klaasen (SRH), Abhishek Sharma (SRH). KL Rahul (DC), but we saw a lot of movement just below them.

GT captain Shubman Gill hit 84 in 44 balls,. his opening partner B Sai Sudharsan scored 55 in 36 balls in their total of 229 for 4, which was 77 runs too many for RR. Gill, as a result, moved up to No. 4 with 462 runs - Klaasen (494), Abhishek (475). Rahul (468) are ahead of him, but not by much - while Sai Sudharsan got to No. 6 with 440 runs.

Between Gill. Sai Sudharsan is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who scored 36 in 16 balls to give RR hope in their chase, and took his tally for the season up to 440 runs, identical to Sai Sudharsan but ahead on strike rate: Sooryavanshi has scored his runs at 236.55, while Sai Sudharsan has gone at 157.70.