Krunal Pandya isn't a name that comes to mind when discussing IPL's most prolific spinners. However, he might actually be ahead of the curve as the flagbearer of defensive bowling, writes Naman Agarwal.
On his RCB debut last week, Krunal Pandya returned figures of 3-29 from his four overs. It was only his second three-for in his last 23 IPL matches. He has never taken a four-wicket haul in the IPL. In fact, Krunal has averaged only 0.67 wickets per innings. He has, however, gone at only 7.36 runs per over.
To put that in perspective, only seven players have bowled on more occasions than him at a better economy rate in the IPL. Only five of those seven are spinners. And only three of those five are Indian spinners: Harbhajan Singh, who played most of his matches in a different era, R Ashwin, who started seven years before Krunal, and Axar Patel.
Harbhajan went for more than eight runs an over in four different IPL seasons, Ashwin twice, and Axar thrice. Krunal is yet to.
Yet, Krunal slips under the radar during conversations on the better IPL spinners, let alone the best ones, much like his actual bowling in games.
Just how good has Krunal been in the IPL?
Debuting for MI in 2016, Krunal was an instant hit with the bat, scoring 237 runs at a strike rate of 191 in his first season. With the ball, he took only six wickets, but went at less than 7.6 runs per over.
Teams are always on the lookout for genuine domestic all-rounders who are highly skilled in at least one, if not both, departments. MI found two in one family. Together, the Pandya brothers formed a core that led Mumbai to three titles in four seasons.
2017 and 2018 were good for Krunal with the bat, after which his batting output started going down. His wicket-taking threat with the ball also reduced after 2019, but nothing - not bad form, not batting-friendly rules, not evolving batters - could take his economy beyond the eight RPO mark.
Year | Inns | Overs | Wickets | BBI | Avg | ER | SR |
2016 | 11 | 31.1 | 6 | 2/15 | 39.33 | 7.57 | 31.1 |
2017 | 13 | 40 | 10 | 3/14 | 27.3 | 6.82 | 24 |
2018 | 13 | 40.1 | 12 | 3/28 | 23.66 | 7.07 | 20 |
2019 | 16 | 46 | 12 | 3/34 | 27.91 | 7.28 | 23 |
2020 | 16 | 50.1 | 6 | 2/26 | 63.33 | 7.57 | 50.1 |
2021 | 12 | 33.1 | 5 | 1/13 | 53 | 7.98 | 39.8 |
2022 | 12 | 38 | 10 | 3/19 | 26.5 | 6.97 | 22.8 |
2023 | 12 | 42 | 9 | 3/18 | 34.77 | 7.45 | 28 |
2024 | 12 | 33 | 6 | 3/11 | 42.5 | 7.72 | 33 |
Across his worst two years with the ball (2020 and 2021), Krunal took a wicket almost half as frequently as the average spinner (45.4 balls vs 25.6 balls), but conceded only 0.3 runs per over more (7.74 vs 7.45).
When the IPL moved back to India from the UAE in 2022, the average scoring rate shot up from 7.61 to 8.03. Spinners, who enjoyed the slower pitches in the UAE, didn’t have the same margin for error on the flatter Indian wickets as their economy rates rose from 7.35 to 7.78.
Krunal, who was coming off two poor seasons by his standards, and was let go by the Mumbai Indians, found a way to reverse the trend. He finished the season with an astonishing economy of 6.97. Only Sunil Narine (5.57) and Rashid Khan (6.59) bowled more overs than him at a better rate.
Only one player has featured in the top three among spinners with the best economy rates in each of the last three IPL seasons - Krunal. Narine was in the top three in 2024 and 2022, Axar in 2024 and 2023, Rashid in 2022, and Kuldeep Yadav in 2023.
The fact that Krunal is often used in the powerplay makes his consistency all the more special. He has bowled 86 overs in the first six, where he has conceded 7.8 runs per over. No other spinner has bowled more than him in this phase since his debut at a better economy.
Naturally, he’s been more expensive against left-handers than right-handers (8.64 vs 6.97), but among the three left-arm spinners who have bowled more than 50 overs against the lefties since 2016 - Krunal, Axar, and Jadeja - Krunal has the best average (33.45) while having an economy rate similar to the other two (8.64 vs 8.56 vs 8.58).
What makes him special?
As the T20 format is evolving, teams, analysts, and even the wider public are starting to realise the value of defensive bowling. You don’t need to take 10 wickets every time to win a T20 match. More specifically, you don’t need to look to take 10 wickets every time to win a T20 match. Bowl dots and don’t concede boundaries for long enough periods and batters will be forced to play low percentage shots, resulting in wickets either for the bowler who created the pressure by keeping the runs down or for the one who comes on to bowl next.
Krunal has quietly been the flagbearer of defensive bowling in the IPL basically ever since he started playing.
It could be by design more than by choice. He rarely turns the ball big or gives it enough air. Either way, he has been ahead of the curve all this while as other spinners have either resorted to loads of variations to increase their mystery quotient or tried and failed at sustained defensive bowling.
Also read: Royal Challengers Bengaluru squad for IPL 2025
This season, he’ll play half of his games in Bengaluru with short boundaries, high altitude, and not much help from the pitch. That’s as stern a challenge as Krunal could have hoped for. If he has another good season, it should cement his place as one of the most effective spinners in recent IPL history. And even if he doesn’t, you can still expect him to be better than most.
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