Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin believes Bhuvneshwar Kumar should have been the Player of the Match in IPL 2026 final against Gujarat Titans. Virat Kohli was adjudged the Player of the Match for scoring 75 runs off 42 balls in the run chase of 156 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday as RCB secured a five-wicket win to win their second IPL title.
However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with impressive figures of 2-29 in his quota of four overs and played a key role in restricting the opposition to 155. Kumar accounted for in-form Sai Sudharsan with a short delivery and also dismissed Jason Holder.
Kumar ended IPL 2026 with 28 scalps in 16 matches at an average of 17.89 and an economy rate of 7.95. Ashwin said Kumar should have also been awarded the Player of the tournament ahead of Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The RR opener was awarded MVP of the season after he scored 776 runs in 16 matches.
Ravichandran Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel, “Bhuvneshwar Kumar was just fabulous throughout the tournament. For me, he should be the Player of the Tournament and should also have been the Player of the Match.”
On the other hand, former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra also made an appearance on Ashwin’s YouTube Channel. Chopra reckons things can go south for RCB if one of their main players suffers an injury.
He said in the same discussion, “The problem with RCB is that they are just one injury away from things going bad, and I really hope that doesn’t happen. Fingers crossed, toes crossed, make sure everyone is fit because you will get limited backups in a mini-auction.”
RCB was able to dominate the IPL final against GT.
