The juggernaut is set to enter its 15th season this year. Mumbai Indians have won the most number of IPL titles – five titles, Chennai Super Kings four, Kolkata Knight Riders have got their hands on the trophy a couple of times, while one each have been won by Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
On the flip side, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kings XI Punjab, and Delhi Capitals are yet to win their maiden title.
While cricket remains a collective game, and only the side that functions well win the title, there have been several players who have performed exceptionally but didn’t win the IPL trophy even once.
Here’s an entire IPL XI of the best players to have not won the IPL:
Openers: Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle is arguably the greatest T20 batsman of all time. However, the big Jamaican couldn’t have an IPL title to his name – with him not participating in the IPL 2022 mega-auction, now it seems he would retire without the coveted trophy.
Featuring for KKR, RCB, and PBKS, Gayle has amassed 4965 runs at a strike rate of 148; he has struck the most number of centuries – 6 – in the league. Gayle played a couple of IPL finals with RCB but it wasn’t to be for the left-hander.
Another swashbuckling opener who didn’t have the best of the luck in the IPL was Virender Sehwag, who opened for Delhi for six seasons and then was with Punjab for his last two IPLs. Sehwag smashed 2728 runs at a strike rate of 155 including a couple of centuries. Sehwag couldn’t score much in his only final versus KKR in 2014.
Middle-order: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, KL Rahul
The trio of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, KL Rahul came one game close to fulfilling their and RCB fans’ dream of winning the IPL trophy – but that was snatched away by SRH in 2016.
Kohli is the leading run-scorer in the IPL with 6283 runs, while AB is the most versatile and complete batsman to have graced the league and has retired after last season. KL Rahul, who moved to Punjab from 201 8 to 2021, and will not lead Lucknow, has already aggregated 3273 runs at 47! All three of them have been defining factors in the success of their franchises, however, haven’t been able to clinch the trophy yet.
Wicket-keeper: Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant took the IPL by storm in his second season in 2017 – he whacked 366 runs at a strike rate of 165. In 2018, the talent and potential of Pant were on full display when he harrumphed 684 runs, striking at 173!
He has been with Delhi since 2016 and has now been promoted to captaincy as well. However, Delhi’s maiden title wait has lengthened; Iyer led them to the final in 2020, and Pant led the franchise at the top of the table last season.
Allrounders: Irfan Pathan, Rashid Khan
Over the years Irfan Pathan was an in-demand commodity in the IPL due to his seam-bowling and hard-hitting batting facilities; he was bought for INR 8.7 crore in 2011 by DD.
His overall numbers – average of 21 with the bat for 1139 runs, and 80 wickets with the ball – are decent while playing for KXIP, DD, SRH, RPS and GL.
Rashid Khan is arguably the best T20 spinner going around in the world and has been a force in the IPL as well. The Afghanistan leg-spinner has snapped 93 wickets so far in 76 IPL games while conceding at only 6.33. However, the champion SRH leg-spinner who has now left his first franchise for Ahmedabad couldn’t win the title for SRH.
Bowlers: Dale Steyn, Yuzvendra Chahal, Amit Mishra
South Africa’s Dale Steyn is one of the most fearsome bowlers of his time and, at his peak, made huge roars in the IPL as well. Featuring for three different franchises, Steyn snared 97 wickets while conceding at 6.92.
Amit Mishra is the third-highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 166 scalps in 154 games. Despite this immense experience, Mishra wasn’t the first-choice spinner for Delhi for the last couple of seasons. Mishra has donned the jerseys of Delhi, Deccan and SRH in his IPL career.
RCB‘s all-time leading wicket-taker Yuzvendra Chahal, with 139 overall scalps, is 9th on the list of most wickets in the IPL. Chahal was also part of the RCB side that lost the 2016 final.
