Virat Kohli with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi; no Ishan Kishan in IPL 2026 team of the tournament

Another season of an Indian Premier League (IPL) is done. It was a similar script for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who have made it back-to-back. In footballing terms, their story is quite similar to that of PSG, who recently basked in European glory once more. Now as the dust settles on IPL 2026, we can surely say it was a wild ride.

We saw a 15-year-old kid rewrite the batting record books, a historic back-to-back championship defense, and top-notch current-generation bowling stars align with their best forms. This season will also be remembered for Jasprit Bumrah’s rare unseccusful campaign but that’s a different talking point.

If you had to build one unbeatable squad from the tournament’s absolute best performers, who makes the cut? We’ve crunched the numbers, weighed the impact, and finalized the ultimate IPL 2026 Team of the Tournament.

IPL 2026 Team of the Tournament

Sooryavanshi opens with Shubman Gill

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was the undisputed fairy tale of the tournament. At just 15 years old, Sooryavanshi completely shattered the ceiling of what we thought a teenager could do. After a season of many highs and only a few lows, he smashed an astonishing 776 runs at a mind-bending 237.30 strike rate to comfortably take home both the Orange Cap and the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Never in history had an Orange Cap winner had a strike rate close to Sooryavanshi’s.

Undoubtedly, the prodigal son had the best season any batter has ever had in an IPL season. He absolutely decimated bowling attacks by hitting 72 sixes across the season, earning himself the Super Striker car while still being too young to legally drive it on roads!

Image Credit: AP Photo/Anupam Nath via Alamy (modified by ChatGPT)

While Shubman Gill played an IPL season for the first time as India’s ODI and Test captain. Guess what, he continued with his immense consistency. He gave us one of the finest pure-striking masterclasses of the summer with a breathtaking 104 off just 53 balls* against the Royals in Qualifier 2. While his opening partner Sai Sudharsan misses out, Gill has made it to this team as his strike rate in wins was 171.33.

Virat Kohli, Patidar and Klaasen form middle-order

Since there were too many openers who did well, we had to move Virat Kohli at number three. After all, he has been there, done that. But in this season, we witnessed a massive evolution in Kohli. After dominating the tournament since its inception, it was a moment made in heaven that he got to finish the IPL 2026 with a superb six and take RCB to their second title. Kohli scored the most runs in wins (581).

Once again, Kohli unlocked an entirely new tier of intent as he struck runs at 165.84 this season, easily his best-ever. Despite that, his average of 56.25 just didn’t go down. In the powerplay overs, he struck at almost 175, and he was basically unbeaten against >145 km/h deliveries for the whole season. His consistency, this time with more aggressiveness, sorted a lot of things for RCB. In the final against GT, a 37-year-old Kohli brought out a 25-ball fifty, the fastest of his entire storied IPL career. He also milked Kagiso Rabada for a record 88 runs across the tournament.

Rajat Patidar and Heinrich Klaasen are perfect middle-order bats here. Tasked with keeping the RCB machine unified, he became the first captain in IPL history to secure championship trophies in each of his first two seasons at the helm. He also reminded everyone of his quality by hammering a merciless 93 off 33 balls* against Gujarat late in May. Against spinners, he had operated at a strike rate of 206.67.

Meanwhile, Klaasen produced one of the best seasons by an overseas middle-order batter. Only AB de Villiers scored more runs as a non-opener in an IPL season. Klaasen hit 624 runs and saved SRH on many occasions. He hit six half-centuries, five of which came in victories.

Why Donovan Ferriera and Krunal Pandya?

One of the most underrated picks in this team is Donovan Ferreira, who was traded back to the Royals from Delhi. It turned out to be a masterstroke from RR as they finally found their finisher after years of setbacks. He was even underutilised some times, as RR used him for a specific role. Thus, he faced 177 balls, in which he hammered 317. Incredibly, he was a tormentor in death overs, squashing 161 runs (the most) at an unimaginable strike rate of 255.6. At Qualifier 2, it was his superb cameo of 38* off 11 that blew GT away.

Every championship squad needs a tactical glue guy, and Krunal Pandya is the gold standard. Silently picking up 14 wickets and managing a massive load through the middle overs with an 8.42 economy rate, he gave RCB the flexibility to always stay a step ahead of the opposition’s batting order. His bouncers, wily bowling and Jos Buttler’s stump dismissal off a fast yorker were things that only senior Pandya can do.

With this latest title victory, Krunal preserves a flawless, astonishing 5-0 win-loss record in IPL finals across his career.

Bhuvi, Rabada, Archer – the pace battery

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