The last couple of IPL seasons have been boundary fests. A boundary was hit under every five balls for the first time in the league in 2024. In the 2025 season, a boundary was hit every 4.67 balls – the lowest ball-per-boundary ratio in the league’s history. Over 3500 boundaries were hit for the first time in a season.

The introduction of the Impact Sub rule in the IPL has emboldened top-order batters to play aggressively from the first ball. In the last couple of seasons, batters like Abhishek Sharma, Nicholas Pooran, Travis Head and Phil Salt have hit a boundary under every four deliveries, or better. The presence of these aggressive batters in the top three, where they get to face the bulk of deliveries, has resulted in an upsurge in the number of boundaries. The IPL 2026 is likely to push the envelope further, as teams stack their top order with batters of their ilk. And they have plenty of batters who are in red-hot boundary-hitting form.

ESPNcricinfo looks at the ball-per-boundary (BpB) data from June 2025 (roughly from the end of the last IPL season) to identify the likely batters who could lead the charge in boundary biffing this season. There are some surprising names like Chennai Super Kings’ Sarfaraz Khan and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Salil Arora among the best in terms of BpB ratios. While any of the batters in this list, or outside of it, could end up being the top act for their respective franchises this season, given where they are likely to bat, only a few of them may end up among the most prolific boundary hitters this season.

Here’s a look at six batters in their prime boundary-hitting form who are likely to get a consistent run in the top three for their teams and could end up contributing substantially to another record-breaking IPL season.

Since June 2025, Abhishek Sharma has hit a boundary every 2.99 balls. Among 57 batters to hit 100 or more boundaries in all T20s in this period, no one has sent the ball across the boundary more frequently.

Strength: He is one of the very few modern batters to not rely on the legside for their big hits. Over 50 percent of Abhishek’s T20I runs have come on the offside. Of Abhishek’s 230 hits on the offside against top T20I teams, 87 have been boundaries – one every 2.64 balls. Among 112 batters who’ve hit 20 or more boundaries in series where complete ball-by-ball data is available, Abhishek’s conversion of boundaries is the best. Josh Inglis is the only other batter to get a boundary every three hits on the offside.

Of the 27 batters who’ve scored 1000 T20 runs since June 2025, Ishan Kishan’s strike rate of 202.12 is the best. Only two other batters among them have managed to score at over 200 – Abhishek and Finn Allen.

Kishan maintained an incredible boundary-hitting rate of about three balls per innings throughout his successful Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign with Jharkhand, the series against New Zealand upon return to the India fold, and the T20 World Cup.

Strength: If Abhishek prefers the offside, Ishan wallops on the legside: he has scored 69.17 percent of his runs in T20Is since his comeback on the legside at a strike rate of 272.59. Of the 135 balls Kishan has hit through the legside, 61 have been boundaries – a conversion rate of one boundary every 2.27 balls. No other batter with at least 50 boundaries on the legside has a better rate in series where complete ball-by-ball data is available.

No batter has scored more runs than Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in their last ten T20 innings. Sooryavanshi has made 436 runs at a strike rate of 202.79 in his last ten T20 innings, all of which have come post-IPL 2025. He’s hit a boundary every 3.03 balls and a six every 5.97 balls.

Among batters to hit 20 or more sixes since June 2025, Sooryavanshi is the one of the only two batters in the IPL squads to hit a six every balls on average.

Strength: Sooryavanshi’s range-hitting against pace: his strike rate against pacers was 221.12 – the highest for anyone to have scored at least 100 runs against them in the last season. He hit 27 boundaries, which included 16 sixes, in just 71 balls against pacers.

The man to hit the fastest T20 World Cup hundred has been in top form: in 30 matches since June 2025, he’s made 1177 runs at a strike rate of 200.17. He’s crossed 50 nine times, three of which have been converted to hundreds.

Allen’s 99 sixes are the third highest by any batter in T20 since June 2025. He has hit one every 5.93 balls, which is the best rate among batters to have hit at least 50 sixes in all T20s in that period.

Strength: Allen’s ball striking on the legside. No one barring Shimron Hetmyer has hit more sixes to the legside than Allen in series where complete ball-by-ball information is available. Allen’s rate of 3.68 hits per six on the legside is easily the best among 138 batters to have hit ten more sixes on the legside in these matches.

Sanju Samson’s last three innings in the T20 World Cup make him a compelling case to be counted among the most formidable boundary hitters going into this IPL.

Strength: Samson’s strokeplay on both sides of the wicket. Opposition captains will have a tough time setting fields for him if he carries his World Cup form into the IPL. While most batters rely on their game on one side of the wicket to get boundaries, Samson can hit boundaries either side of the wicket. Only 12 batters in the T20 World Cup got 100 or more runs on the offside. Among them, Samson’s balls-per-boundary ratio of 2.59 was the best. He was also the only batter who struck at a strike rate of over 200 through the offside. Samson wasn’t bad on the legside too. He got 159 runs on the legside at a strike rate of 209.21 in the World Cup, hitting a boundary every 3.45 balls on average.

Samson’s move to CSK has freed up the No. 3 slot at Rajasthan Royals, where Shimron Hetmyer could end up batting for them in this season. Hetmyer has an average of 40.80, striking at over 180 in 12 innings at No. 3 since June 2025. He is in superb touch too: he has hit the second-most sixes in all T20s post IPL 2025. Hetmyer has smashed 105 of them in just 51 innings – at an incredible average of two sixes per innings.

Strength: He is one of the best middle-over spin basher going around on current form. Hetmyer has hit spinners for 73 boundaries in overs 7 to 16 in T20s post the last IPL. Only 18 of them have been fours: for every four he’s hit the spinners, he’s clobbered three sixes.

Hetmyer targets the cow corner – 35.10 percent of his runs in T20s since June 2025 have come through that region. Among 90 batters who’ve hit 500 or more runs in series where ball-by-ball data is available, no batter has scored a higher percentage of runs through midwicket. He has hit 67 boundaries through the midwicket region, 50 of which have been sixes, at 2.70 hits per boundary through the area.

*all data correct up to March 21, 2026; T20 series where complete ball-by-ball data is available – T20Is between Full Member teams and the following franchise leagues – IPL, PSL, BBL, CPL, Vitality Blast, BPL, LPL, SA20, ILT20, MLC, The Hundred

Shiva Jayaraman is a senior stats analyst at ESPNcricinfo @shiva_cricinfo