Bhuvneshwar's fourth 20-wicket IPL season puts him level with Bumrah and back in the India conversation
The most striking IPL 2026 stat line does not belong to a 22-year-old finisher or a debutant chaos-maker. It belongs to a 36-year-old who has spent most of his career being underestimated. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's four wickets for 23 against Mumbai Indians in Raipur on Sunday took him to 21 for the season, his fourth IPL campaign with 20-plus dismissals.
That puts him level with Jasprit Bumrah on four such seasons. Bhuvneshwar's 20-wicket years are 2014, 2016, 2017 and now 2026. Nine years separate the third and the fourth.
A different version of him
The current Bhuvneshwar is not the version that took 26 wickets at Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2017 to win his second straight Purple Cap. He is slower through the air, he has lost a yard or two off the pace, and his action has been tweaked over the years to take pressure off his back. What he has not lost is the swing in the powerplay and the rhythm at the death, which is the entire reason RCB picked him up before the 2025 title run and retained him for this season.
Against Mumbai he removed Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. Four batters, three of them current India internationals, off his four overs at 23 runs. He then went out with the bat and scythed Raj Bawa for six over deep cover with nine needed off three balls to set up the win. RCB needed both halves of that performance to chase down 167.
A purple cap, a milestone and an India door not yet shut
Bhuvneshwar leads the IPL 2026 wicket charts on 21. He has six three-wicket hauls in the season. RCB sit at the head of the table on 14 points with three games left, and the bowling group that has carried them there leans on him more heavily than any other name. He also crossed 200 IPL wickets earlier in this campaign, the first fast bowler in the competition's history to do so.
There is a parallel conversation that has come back to life. The last time Bhuvneshwar wore an India shirt was a T20I against New Zealand at Napier in November 2022. He has not been picked since. India's selectors still have a problem they have not fully solved, a swing bowler who can take wickets in the powerplay against quality opposition, and the case to call him up for the T20I summer is being made loudly online.
Whether the door opens or not, IPL 2026 has already done its job for him. Four 20-wicket seasons, two Purple Caps, 200 IPL wickets and a campaign that has carried his team to the top of the table at 36. That is the kind of body of work that does not need a comeback to be remarkable.
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