This year has two giant narrative engines:
- The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka) runs 7 Feb to 8 Mar 2026.
- The IPL window (as reported to franchises) is 26 Mar to 31 May 2026, which basically means the cricket conversation doesn’t get a break after the World Cup.
And because the World Cup is literally happening right now (matches in Colombo on 19 Feb), reputations are being rewritten in real time.
My pick for 2026: Jasprit Bumrah
If I’m choosing one name to carry across the whole year, I still land on Bumrah, and it’s not a “safe” pick, it’s a leverage pick.
He’s the rare bowler who is elite in the three phases that actually decide trophies: powerplay control, middle-overs damage when you’re hunting a wicket, and death overs where everyone else is praying for execution. You can talk about “best batter” all day, but one bowler who consistently wins overs 18 and 20 is basically stealing matches.
The other reason I’m comfortable planting a flag is that his ceiling is not hypothetical. The ICC has already framed his peak as historic in ranking terms: 907 rating points, the highest by an Indian Test bowler in ICC rankings history.
That doesn’t automatically make him “best in 2026”, but it tells you you’re talking about the very top tier of dominance.
Why the IPL matters for this question (a lot)
For serious fans, IPL isn’t “just a league”, it’s where roles get stress-tested under pressure and where form becomes unavoidable. It’s also the league with the gravity to shape reputations globally, not just in India.
Reuters reported this week how insane the IPL machine has become from an ecosystem point of view (investment interest, valuation talk, per-match value comparisons). That matters because “best player” narratives follow the biggest stages.
So if someone has a monster World Cup and then backs it up with an IPL season where they’re the best player in the competition, that’s how you win the year in public opinion and in the trends you’ll see on betting sites.
The main threats to Bumrah owning 2026
If Bumrah is the “most likely” overall pick, the guys who can steal the year are the ones who can define tournaments.
Varun Chakaravarthy
If this World Cup becomes a control-and-choke tournament (which often happens on slower surfaces), the best middle-overs wicket-taker who doesn’t leak is priceless. He was No.1 in the ICC T20I bowling rankings as of 11 Feb 2026.
Wanindu Hasaranga
Not because Sri Lanka are co-hosting, but because he’s exactly the profile that wins big T20 games when batters can’t just hit through the line for 40 overs straight. He’s right up at the top end of the T20I bowling rankings too.
(That’s as far as I’ll go on the Sri Lanka angle: home conditions can help, but the real point is his style fits tournament cricket.)
Abhishek Sharma / Phil Salt / Buttler tier (if you want a batter-led “best of year”)
If a top-order batter owns the knockouts, that’s often what history remembers. The ICC T20I batting rankings snapshot from 11 Feb had Abhishek Sharma at No.1 and Salt at No.2, with Buttler right behind.
A batter can “win” 2026 by doing two things: deliver one iconic World Cup innings, then be the best batter in the IPL window. That combination is how headlines get written.
My view is this: 2026 is built for a player who can dominate high-pressure overs and high-pressure nights, because the calendar goes World Cup straight into IPL, with no breathing room.
That’s why I pick Bumrah as the best bet to be “player of the year” when we look back. But if a spinner runs the Super 8s and knockouts, or a top-order batter goes nuclear and then bosses the IPL, the conversation changes fast, and cricket fans won’t need convincing.
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