Anshul Kamboj leads IPL 2026 wicket charts with 17 scalps, including 10 in the last five overs.
Chennai Super Kings skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad was captured on camera just moments after the game concluded. On that evening, Kamboj had conceded 49 runs in his four-over spell without claiming a wicket. The seamer has repeatedly neutralized right-handed batters by operating from around the wicket in IPL 2026, but Ashutosh Sharma disrupted the pattern by stepping across the stumps, dropping low, and striking the ball cleanly on the full. The question now arises: can Kamboj adapt to these counter-measures?
Kamboj sits joint-top of the Purple Cap standings with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, each holding 17 wickets. Kamboj has collected ten of those dismissals between overs 15 and 20, more than any other bowler in that phase. Despite being in only his third IPL campaign, Kamboj has shouldered a demanding role that experienced campaigners like Bhuvneshwar, Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer typically handle in the league.
While MS Dhoni remained the primary attraction during CSK’s on-field sessions or drills, Kamboj drew a star-studded audience in pre-season preparations. Nearly all of the team’s support staff—head coach Stephen Fleming, bowling coach Eric Simons and assistant bowling coach S Sriram—gathered to watch Kamboj land one wide yorker after another from around the wicket.
Kamboj began his domestic career as a swing bowler in Haryana’s conducive conditions and primarily operated with the new ball for his state in T20 cricket. During IPL 2025, CSK also deployed him as a new-ball specialist, with 126 of his 129 deliveries coming in the powerplay. Before IPL 2026, Kamboj had bowled just six balls from around the wicket in the tournament, but this season he has bowled 75 such deliveries, all between overs 15 and 20, emerging as the face of a fresh trend against right-hand batters.
Nobody anticipated such a dramatic transformation or execution level. Kamboj is one reason CSK, widely regarded as having a fragile bowling unit, now boast the second-best economy rate in IPL 2026 at 9.02. Anshul Kamboj claimed three wickets to become the highest wicket-taker so far.
We have discussed extensively as a bowling unit about what I call the chaos of batting right now, said Simons at a press conference in Delhi. One of the things we decided to move away from was an overemphasis on multiple tactics so bowlers enter the ground with absolute clarity on what they want to achieve and confidence to execute it. So if we bowl a good delivery that gets hit for six, it’s still a good delivery and likely the right ball to bowl next.
Simons also revealed that Project Kamboj began during last season’s CSK nets and then took concrete shape in the most recent domestic season. In the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Kamboj played a crucial tail-role and secured 21 wickets en route to the final. Only Jharkhand’s Sushant Mishra (22) and Rajasthan’s Ashok Sharma (22) took more wickets than Kamboj during that campaign.
What you see of Anshul today is not from this season alone.. it started last year, Simons explained. The drills we worked on, he carried into the domestic season, refining different angles and crease approaches and improving accuracy with his yorkers in particular. We’ve introduced the around-the-wicket angle, which is no secret now. He has taken wickets and restricted the run-rate, but what truly matters is his professionalism, his training ethos and his tactical understanding. In modern cricket, a bowler must be crystal clear about his plans and he is—both in execution and field placements.
In the past, CSK had one of the greatest death bowlers in history wearing jersey number 47, baffling batters with his dipping yorkers. Now, they have an emerging bowler in the same number who is carrying the burden for a relatively inexperienced attack in the slog overs.