The IPL 2026 has found its first true speed sensation — and he came not from a recognised fast-bowling factory, but from Rajasthan, bought for just Rs 90 lakh at the auction.

The Delivery That Stopped the Stadium

It was the final ball of the 16th over, Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Dhruv Jurel was at the crease in full flow. Ashok Sharma charged in off a long run, got everything right at the crease — and what came out was a 154.2 kmph yorker that sizzled into Jurel’s toes.

Just two balls earlier, he had already clocked 150.7 kmph on the fourth delivery of the same over to Donovan Ferreira. That single over gave Ashok the fastest and third-fastest deliveries of IPL 2026 simultaneously.

The fastest ball speed chart for IPL 2026 now reads:

Rank

Player

Team

Speed

—

—

—

—

1

Ashok Sharma

Gujarat Titans

154.2 kmph

2

Anrich Nortje

Lucknow Super Giants

150.9 kmph

3

Ashok Sharma

Gujarat Titans

150.7 kmph

Who Is Ashok Sharma?

The 23-year-old right-arm pacer from Rajasthan has quietly built a remarkable record in limited-overs cricket. In just 11 T20 matches before this IPL, he had taken 33 wickets — a phenomenal return that speaks to his natural ability to move the ball and surprise batters with pace.

He was briefly with Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025 before Gujarat Titans picked him up for Rs 90 lakh in the 2026 auction — a bargain that looks better with every over he bowls. GT paid barely a fraction of what franchise rivals spent on established pace names, and they may have found themselves the most exciting raw talent of the tournament.

Dale Steyn, who watched the over closely, praised the mechanics behind the pace: a smooth, powerful action and near-perfect front-leg brace that allow Ashok to generate extreme pace without apparent effort.

Not Just Speed — Control at the Death

What made Ashok’s spell genuinely impressive was not just the numbers on the speed gun. He finished the match with 1 for 37 in four overs, picking up the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer. Against a batting lineup as explosive as RR’s, conceding at that rate while bowling at 145-plus kmph consistently is a serious achievement.

The challenge — and the worry — is workload management. The IPL, and Indian cricket, already know the cautionary tale of Mayank Yadav and Umran Malik: young quick bowlers whose raw pace was magnificent but whose bodies buckled under the pressure of continuous high-speed bowling before they were properly conditioned. Ashok Sharma carries the hopes and the lessons of both. BCCI coaches will need to walk carefully.

RR’s Top Shone Even Brighter

While Ashok was the story for GT, the GT vs RR match also provided the latest chapter of the Jaiswal-Sooryavanshi story. The teenage opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed 31 off 18 balls before Rashid Khan dismissed him, while Jaiswal made 55 off 36 — their opening stand of 70 in 6.2 overs setting the platform for Jurel’s 75.

Together, Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi have now scored 497 runs from just 246 balls as an opening pair — needing just three more to break the record for the fastest pair in IPL history to reach 500 partnership runs, currently held by Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir (500 off 309 balls for Delhi Daredevils).