IPL 2025: A Season of Thrills, Records and New Beginnings

 Indian Premier League 2025

The time has come once more for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to return for another thrilling cricket season.  As the IPL returns for its annual show, 2025 promises to be an exciting year bringing with it the excitement, drama, high-octane action anticipation and cricket fervor that fans wait for every year. The 18th season of the most famous T20 cricket competition in the world, the IPL 2025, is expected to surpass all expectations with its heart-stopping drama, iconic cricketing performances, and moments of pure genius .

The 18th edition of the IPL runs from 22 March to 25 May 2025, featuring 74 matches across 13 cities in India.

IPL 2025 introduces some exciting rule modifications to enhance gameplay fairness and excitement:-

• Saliva Ban Lifted: Players are now allowed to use saliva to shine the ball and make it swing for longer. This is a reversal from the post-pandemic restrictions.
• Second Ball Rule: To counter dew, teams are now allowed to request a new fresh ball after 11 overs in night games. This will help the bowling teams to have a good chance to compete in places where dew helps team batting second.
• Expanded DRS call: Apart from wicket decisions teams can now also challenge for height-based no-balls and off-side wides to reduce umpiring errors and have a fair play.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is more than just cricket; it's about the teams who embody competitiveness, togetherness, and excitement.  Each IPL franchise brings a unique blend of skill, strategy, and fan loyalty, making the competition a fascinating spectacle for cricket fans around the world.  Let's dig deeper into each squad's strengths and shortcomings. 

Lets start with the defending champions,

1. KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

Strengths-

1. STRONG TOP ORDER AND EXPLOSIVE MIDDLE/LOWER ORDER

Like last season KKR boasts a strong batting order from opening pair of Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock or Rahmanullah Gurbaz to middle order consisting of captain Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Manish Pandey and lower order of RRR (Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh). KKR batting lineup is full of explosive players which makes them one of the strongest batting unit in IPL.

2. QUALITY FRONTLINE SPINNERS

In form of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy, KKR has two top mystery spinners in their ranks. Add Anukul Roy in the mix and KKR has a strong spin battery, which made them successful last year especially in their home ground of Eden Gardens.

3. CORE REMAINS INTACT POST MEGA AUCTION

One of the major strength of KKR has been their ability to collect all the major players that led them to victory last season. Even after mega auction they had all their stars, which makes them a strong team.

4. VERSATILE ALL-ROUNDERS

KKR has a long list of good quality all-rounders in form of  Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Rusell, Sunil Narine, Moeen Ali and Ramandeep Singh. With so many all-rounders in the roster, the captain has plenty of choices for both batting and bowling, which increases their strength.

Weakness-

1. INEXPERIENCED PACE ATTACK

Apart from Harshit Rana, KKR don't have any experienced Indian Pace bowling. Vaibhav Arora and Chetan Sakariya don't have large amount of experience that may be required for the IPL. In overseas players also they only have Anrich Nortje who is very injury prone and returning from a long term injury, and Spencer Johnson who is also not a very strong experienced player.

2. SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Strengths-

1. FEARSOME BATTING LINEUP

The most feared batting lineup from last season, SRH has just increased their might by adding Ishan Kishan to the lineup already consisting of  Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy. The top 5 of SRH batting are enough to create fear in any bowling team and every batsman capable of finishing the match on their own. This batting lineup is most suited to cross the 300 run mark in IPL this year.

2. GOOD MIX OF EXPERIENCE AND YOUTH

SRH has a good mix of experience and youth in their team. Youngsters like Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rahul Chahar with seniors like Mohd. Shami, Pat Cummins and Travis Head, creates a good mix and strong team.

3. COMPLETE BOWLING LINEUP

Last season the major problem that SRH faced was their bowling. While SRH batsman were scoring 250+ regularly their bowlers would also concede close to 220-230 and they were just crossing the line. This year they had sorted this by building a strong bowling unit with  Mohd. Shami and Harshal Patel to support Pat Cummins in pace bowling and two proper spinners in form of Rahul Chahar and Adam Zampa.

Weakness-

1. INJURY CONCERNS

One of the major weakness for the SRH is the injury concerns surrounding their squad. They have already lost Brayon Carse to injury and their are also injury concerns for their captain Pat Cummins. Mohd. Shami and Heinrich Klaasen have just returned from a long term injury. SRH need to ensure that their squad remains free from injury.

2. INEXPERIENCED LOWER ORDER

This may seem odd but SRH has a very inexperienced lower order in form of Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby and Atharva Taide. If their top 5 failed, they don't have any player to bank on to get them out of trouble.

3. ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU

Strengths-

1.  SOLID BATTING

RCB has a solid batting lineup with likes of Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Tim David, Jacob Bethell and Devdutt Padikkal in their ranks, making RCB a strong batting unit as always.

2. VARIETY IN PACE ATTACK

For the first time RCB has a good mix of pacers in their rank and are not dependent on a single good pacer for whole season. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Lungi Ngidi, Rasikh Salam, Yash Dayal and Nuwan Thushara all bring a different specialization to the squad.

Weakness-

1. LACK OF WICKET TAKING SPINNERS

RCB only has two proper spinners in their rank in form of Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma. Both of them are good economical spinners but are not regular wicket taking options that a team requires for whole IPL.

2. INJURY CONCERNS

Just like SRH, RCB also faces lots of injury problems in their squad. Many players have fitness concern, with no update on what is the level of their injury or whether they will be able to play complete season or not.

4. MUMBAI INDIANS

Strengths-

1. VARIETY AND SKILL IN ALL  DEPARTMENTS

MI has one of the most skilled squad in the IPL. From batting to bowling MI has players with different variations and skills in their team like Rohit Sharma, SKY, Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner and more all bringing a different skillset to the squad.

2. VAST INTERNATIONAL AND T20 LEAGUE EXPERIENCE

All the players in MI squad have a large amount of experience of both international and domestic T20 leagues. All this experience will definitely help MI team in long run in the IPL.

Weakness-

1. BACKUPS NOT ON SAME LEVEL AS SUPERSTAR XI

First 11 of MI is really strong, without doubt. But if any one of them gets injured, their replacement is not on the same level as the starting squad. This could be a big weakness as any injury to a player could hamper the chances of MI to win title.

2. ACCEPTANCE OF HARDIK PANDYA AS CAPTAIN

One of the biggest problem that MI faced last season was rejection of Hardik Pandya as new captain of the team. Every time MI would be playing Hardik would face a lot of criticism and booing. All this brought morale of team down. If this season MI supporters accept Hardik as captain it will be a lot better for team as Hardik the player will play more freely and whole squad will be able to focus on cricket and not on outside noises.

5. CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Strengths-

1. EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

After MI, CSK is one of the most experienced squad. Players like  Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Noor Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana, Sam Curran all have vast experience of both international and domestic T20s. Along with experience, these players are expert in their skills and have proven it on bigger stages many times.

2. BANK OF ALL-ROUNDERS

CSK have a great bank of all-rounders in their squad like every season. Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Sam Curran, Rachin Ravindra, Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda all are great all-rounders which bring a lot of balance and flexibility to the team.

3. GREAT SPIN UNIT

In likes of Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Noor Ahmed CSK have one of the greatest spin trio in their squad in IPL 2025. If all three play together especially on slow turning pitches of Chennai it would become hard for any team to score.

Weakness-

1. LACK OF FINISHERS

One of the issue that CSK faces is lack of finishers in their team. Apart from Shivam Dube CSK only have an uncapped Mahendra Singh Dhoni in their squad to finish the matches. This can be a issue in tough league like IPL as in some cases they may fail to cross the line and win matches.

2. DEATH BOWLING

Death bowling can also be one of the weakness of Chennai side as they only have one genuine death bowler in form of Matheesha Pathirana. Others like Sam Curran, Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Choudhary are good pacers but are very expansive in death overs.

6. PUNJAB KINGS

Strengths-

1. BANK OF ALL-ROUNDERS

Punjab have a large bank of  all-rounders in their squad - Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Hardie, Praveen Dubey, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen and Shashank Singh. This not only strengthens the squad but also bring flexibility to squad and gives lot of options for batting and bowling.

2. DEPTH IN BATTING AND BOWLING DEPARTMENT

Punjab has a great depth in both batting and bowling especially in pace bowling department. Both of these departments are filled with large number of Indian and overseas recruits.

Weakness-

1. LACK OF DEPTH IN SPIN DEPARTMENT

While Punjab has a lot of pacers in their rank, but they only have a single good spinner in their squad in form of Yuzvendra Chahal. Depending upon only one spinner for whole season could be a very big weakness for the team.

2. HEAVILY RELY ON AL-ROUNDERS

Punjab has lot of all-rounders in their squads which gives them a lot of options but also a weakness as they will be heavily relying on them to get them through the season.

7. LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS

Strengths-

1. GREAT MIDDLE ORDER

Lucknow has one of the greatest middle order that any team can have. Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran and David Miller are strong power hitters and can hit anyone for long sixes. Moreover all three are left handers which gives them an extra edge as bowling to left handers becomes little difficult for bowlers. Another advantage to them is that all three can bat at any number in middle order with continuously changing their batting position and damaging the plans of rival bowlers.

2. GOOD OVERSEAS BATTING OPTION

Lucknow have good overseas batting options in their squad with likes of Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Nicholas Pooran and Matthew Breetzke. All are strong power hitters and have good experience of playing in T20 leagues across the globe.

Weakness-

1. BOWLING ATTACK

One of the possible weakness of Lucknow side is their bowling as they have all Indian bowling attack that are majorly uncapped at International level. This can be both an opportunity and weakness for team as their inexperience can cause team matches. 

2. INJURY CONCERNS

One of the biggest weakness of team Lucknow is their injury concerns. Half of their pace battery is injured and still not cleared to participate in opening matches by BCCI. This can be a big problem as they may not be able to play their top players from start. 

3. RISHABH PANT YET TO PROVE T20 CREDENTIALS

We all know how strong a player Rishabh Pant is and he has proved this multiple times in Test Cricket but the only problem is that he is yet to prove his credentials in T20 cricket. He is yet to prove his power hitting abilities in IPL.  

8. GUJRAT TITANS

Strengths-

1. SOLID TOP 3

GT has solid top 3 batters in their squad - Jos Buttler, Shubham Gill and Sai Sudarshan, all of whom have a solid batting and carry the innings on their own single handedly and giving the team a strong start to the innings.

2. BRILLIANT NEW BALL PACERS

GT have good new ball pacers who can swing the new ball both sides and can cause problems to the batsmen. Gerald Coetzee, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna and Mohd. Siraj, all can swing the new ball and take many wickets in opening spells.  

Weakness-

1. INEXPERIENCED MIDDLE AND LOWER ORDER

Apart from top 3 in batting the middle and lower order of GT is largely inexperienced and may fail if top 3 is unable to score runs and gets out early.

2. DEATH OVER BOWLING

GT has good new ball pacers but they lack pacers to bowl in death bowling. All of their pacers are good with new ball but become very expensive in death overs and leak runs. 

9. RAJASTHAN ROYALS

Strengths-

1. STRONG INDIAN BATTING LINEUP

Rajasthan has a very strong lineup of Indian batsmen in their ranks. They have both present and future of Indian team in their batting unit in likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel which gives a strong edge to the team.  

2. GOOD BOWLING UNIT

Rajasthan has good bowling unit with good mix of strong pacers and wicket taking spinners in their side, like last season. This gives them a strong edge and can be very helpful for them in long run.  

Weakness-

1. NOT ABLE TO REPLACE LOST STARS IN AUCTION

One of the weakness of Rajasthan side was that they were unable to replace any of their previous stars in the mega auction. They were unable to replace stars like Trent Boult, Jos Buttler, Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin, whom were responsible for their success in previous seasons.

2. LACK OF ALL-ROUNDERS

Just like last season, Rajasthan still don't have a proper all-rounder in their squad. This forces the team to play with rigid system of 6 proper batsmen and 5 proper bowlers and makes them unable to take advantage of impact substitute properly.

10. DELHI CAPITALS

Strengths-

1. GOOD MIX OF AGGRESSION AND CAUTION IN BATTING 

DC has a good set of batsmen in their squad who are a good mix of both aggression and caution. Players like James Fraser-McGurk, Tristan Stubbs, KL Rahul and Donovan Ferreira who play aggressive style of cricket and Faf du Plessis and Karun Nair who play cautiously. This makes DC batting unit a strong one.

2. GOOD SPIN BOWLING UNIT

In terms of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, DC has two strong spinners who were part of India's last two ICC trophy winning sides. They form a strong spin duo who can be your leading wicket takers and can cause damage to any opposing team.

Weakness

1.  MYSTERY IN BATTING ORDER

A possible weakness that DC can have is that they don't have a set batting order. Their batting order is a mystery as many of the batsman may play or not and if playing will be out of their natural position. It is a weakness as if you play batsman like KL Rahul, Faf du Plessis and James Fraser-McGurk out of position they will not be as dangerous as they can be.

2. INEXPERIENCED FINISHERS

Apart from Tristan Stubbs, DC only have Ashutosh Sharma and Sameer Rizvi as finishers. Both are good batsmen but only have experience of one IPL season behind them. This will be a weakness as both of them may not finish matches in tense situation as expected from them.

3. AXAR PATEL - AN UNTESTED CAPTAIN

Another weakness that DC might have is of having an untested captain in Axar Patel. He is yet to lead a team in domestic circuit or in IPL. This can be a weakness as well as an opportunity for the team. His inexperience of captaincy can be a problem for team in tough situation but being a new captain he will also bring a fresh perspective which can be beneficial for the team.  

Beyond the trophy, the IPL 2025 is influencing the future of T20 cricket in India.  With new stars emerging, experienced legends demonstrating their worth, and new laws redefining the game, this season will have a long-lasting impact on the sport.

As battle for the IPL glory unfolds from today, one question arises - who will lift trophy this year?