Krunal Pandya loves going against the norm. He is a spinner who bowls bouncers and low round-arm slingers. And he is flaunting a new, braided hairstyle. Quietly in IPL 2026, he is also quashing a notion, that a left-arm orthodox spinner can't be successful against left-hand batters.
Captains in the IPL have often avoided bowling left-arm fingerspinners when left-hand batters are at the crease. During the Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) game on April 13, Ravindra Jadeja didn't bowl a single ball to Ishan Kishan with RR captain Riyan Parag later suggesting it was because Kishan was going well. Axar Patel, who often bowls in the powerplay, has often held himself back when there is a left-hand batter around.
That isn't the case with Krunal.
Since the start of IPL 2025, no left-arm fingerspinner has bowled as many balls (124) to left-hand batters as he has or has picked up more wickets against them than him (seven). All this while maintaining an economy rate of 9.19. His victims include Priyansh Arya, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Shimron Hetmyer.
In the same period, Jadeja has bowled 91 balls (only 14 this season) to left-hand batters and picked up four wickets, and Axar has bowled 71 balls for three and Mitchell Santner has picked up one wicket in 49 balls.
Just how much Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar trusts Krunal against left-hand batters was evident against RR. Sooryavanshi was making light work of a 202-run target in Guwahati, with almost all RCB bowlers travelling. Even Krunal's first over went for 14 with Sooryavanshi pumping him over deep square-leg for six.
But Krunal continued and with the first ball of his second over, he had Sooryavanshi caught at wide long-on. In walked a helmetless Hetmyer and Krunal bowled a bouncer on off, which was ramped straight to short third. Two balls, two left-hand batters gone. In a high-scoring game where even Josh Hazlewood went at 11 runs an over and two bowlers at 18, Krunal's economy rate was 7.50 after four overs. Against Mumbai Indians (MI), a game where 240 played 222, Krunal's 1 for 26 in four overs was the point of difference.
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"I have never shied away from trying different and new things," Krunal said after the win against MI. "If you see with the impact player rule... previously without an impact player, you had No. 6 allrounder, No. 7 allrounder, the batsmanship was a lot different.
"Now, having eight pure batters, and plus the skillset, you see the young boys are just hitting from ball one consistently. As a bowler, I always want to be one step ahead. The skillset as well as the mental battle. It has just purely come from that, whether it is bending my knee and bowling that ball or bowling a bouncer.
"I am glad that it is coming out well and hope that in this format, there are fingerspinners who will survive and who can take something out of it and do well in this format. For a fingerspinner, flat tracks, having eight batters, it has become very difficult. I am glad that I am able to contribute in a nice way."
There is a method behind Krunal's mastery, and his funkiness.
All the 41 deliveries that he has bowled to left-hand batters this season have been from around the wicket. He mixes his lengths and pace, not allowing the batters to line him up. According to ESPNcricinfo's logs, he bowls more bouncers to left-hand batters than to right-hand batters, keeping the ball away from the hitting arc.
Krunal Pandya returned 1 for 26 in a match where 462 runs were scored
It's also something he trains for. A day before RCB's home game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), he was bowling exclusively to left-hand batters Jacob Bethell and Devdutt Padikkal, exploring the around-the-wicket angles, varying his lengths and pace.
On Friday, a day before the game against Delhi Capitals (DC), he didn't bowl to the left-hand batters but faced off against Tim David and Romario Shepherd. The first ball to David was a bouncer. When Shepherd smashed his low-arm slinger for six, Krunal came back with another bouncer - and a few words - and the batter had to duck under.
Krunal's success isn't a flash in the pan. When RCB won the IPL for the first time last year, the focus was all on Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but Krunal became their middle-overs (7 to 16) glue, picking up 12 wickets while maintaining an economy rate of 7.89. In the IPL 2025 final, with Punjab Kings (PBKS) chasing 191, Krunal returned 2 for 17 in his four overs to take the Player-of-the-Match award.
He has carried the form into IPL 2026. Barring the opening game against SRH, Krunal has picked up at least a wicket in each game and is currently RCB's joint-highest wicket-taker along with Bhuvneshwar, with seven. On Wednesday, he became just the sixth player to complete the double of 100 wickets and 1000 runs in the IPL. Twenty-seven out of the 100 have been left-hand batters and as he approaches the DC contest, he will have at least one more - Axar - in his sights.