The Indian Premier League has seen pacers dominate the wickets tally, with spinners dominating a very few times for most wickets in a single edition with a cut-off of 23.
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The Indian Premier League is played on placid wickets in the sub-continent and Asia. Barring one edition in South Africa, the matches in the IPL have been played on slow, low, and flat wickets. It might be expected that spinners would dominate proceedings when it comes to most wickets in a single season of the IPL. But, it comes as a shocker that it has been pacers, both Indian and overseas, that have dominated the wickets tally in the history of the IPL.
When one takes the cut-off for 24 wickets in a single season of the tournament, it will come as a surprising stat that only three spinners have ever breached the 24-wicket barrier in the IPL. The common trend among all the spinners is that two out of the three are legspinners, with Sunil Narine being the only spinner who bowls both legspin and offspin.
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In fact, if one extends the IPL wickets tally to 21, then six spinners have dominated the wickets tally in a season. Even here, legspinners have dominated. Anil Kumble, Amit Mishra are all legspinners. The only non-legspinner who dominated a single season was Pragyan Ojha. The left-arm orthodox spinner took 21 wickets in the 2009 IPL edition.
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If one looks at the overall wickets and the highest wickets per season, then pace dominates in all aspects. Lasith Malinga and Dwayne Bravo dominate the charts in IPL when it comes to all-time wickets. In wickets per season, about 90 percent of all the bowlers are pacers. In the list of most wickets per season, only three bowlers have ever crossed 30. Harshal Patel, Dwayne Bravo, and Kagiso Rabada took 32 and 30 wickets respectively. The fact that they achieved all of this on flat conditions shows their prowess. Here is the complete list.
| Name | Team | Year | Matches | Wickets | Economy Rate | Strike-Rate |
| Harshal Patel | RCB | 2021 | 15 | 32 | 8.14 | 10.5 |
| Dwayne Bravo | CSK | 2013 | 18 | 32 | 7.95 | 11.7 |
| Kagiso Rabada | DC | 2020 | 17 | 30 | 8.34 | 13.1 |
| Lasith Malinga | MI | 2011 | 16 | 28 | 5.95 | 13.5 |
| James Faulkner | RR | 2013 | 16 | 28 | 6.75 | 13.5 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | MI | 2020 | 15 | 27 | 6.73 | 13.3 |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | SRH | 2017 | 14 | 26 | 7.05 | 12 |
| Dwayne Bravo | CSK | 2015 | 17 | 26 | 8.14 | 12 |
| Imran Tahir | CSK | 2019 | 17 | 26 | 6.69 | 14.8 |
| Kagiso Rabada | DC | 2019 | 12 | 25 | 7.82 | 11.2 |
| Morne Morkel | DD | 2012 | 16 | 25 | 7.19 | 15.1 |
| Trent Boult | MI | 2020 | 15 | 25 | 7.97 | 13.7 |
| Jaydev Unadkat | RPS | 2017 | 12 | 24 | 7.02 | 11.4 |
| Sunil Narine | KKR | 2012 | 15 | 24 | 5.47 | 14.7 |
| Lasith Malinga | MI | 2015 | 15 | 24 | 7.4 | 15 |
| Andrew Tye | KXIP | 2018 | 14 | 24 | 8 | 14 |
| Avesh Khan | DC | 2021 | 16 | 24 | 7.37 | 15.2 |
| Harbhajan Singh | MI | 2013 | 19 | 24 | 6.51 | 17.5 |
| Mitchell Johnson | MI | 2013 | 17 | 24 | 7.17 | 16 |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | RCB | 2015 | 15 | 23 | 8.86 | 12.2 |
| RP Singh | DC | 2009 | 16 | 23 | 6.98 | 15.5 |
| Mohit Sharma | CSK | 2014 | 16 | 23 | 8.39 | 14 |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | SRH | 2016 | 17 | 23 | 7.42 | 17.1 |
| R Vinay Kumar | RCB | 2013 | 16 | 23 | 8.19 | 15.6 |
*Minimum number of wickets for consideration is 23.
Spin has had its moments, with Amit Mishra taking three hat-tricks. Imran Tahir is the top spinner when it comes to most wickets in a single season which he did in 2019 for Chennai Super Kings. There is another interesting anecdote when it comes to most wickets in a season. The individual from whose team he has become the leading wicket-taker has rarely won the IPL trophy.
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The first person to actually break the jinx was Sunil Narine when he topped the charts in 2012 with 24 wickets. That was the first time Kolkata Knight Riders won the title. Eight years later, Jasprit Bumrah shattered the jinx when he and Boult together combined to take 52 wickets and help Mumbai Indians win the title for the fifth time.
