Start to finish
IPL 2025 starts and finishes at the Eden Gardens. It kicks off on Saturday with the KKR vs RCB game and reaches its climax on May 25, when the final will be played. Wrapped within these two dates will be 74 matches which will be played across 13 cities. Why 13? Because besides the 10 base cities of the 10 franchises, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati and Dharamsala will also be hosting matches.
Format formalities
It’s the same as last season. Teams have been divided into two groups of five teams each and each team will play the other teams in their groups twice. From the other group, they will play one team (decided by seeding) twice and the other four teams once. So 8 + 2 + 4, each team will play 14 matches in the league stage at the end of which the top four qualify for the playoffs. The groups? Group A is CSK, KKR, RR, RCB and PBKS and Group B is MI, SRH, GT, DC and LSG.
Hello, captains
Five teams will field new skippers this time. Shreyas Iyer (Punjab Kings), Ajinkya Rahane (KKR), Rishabh Pant (LSG), Axar Patel (DC) and Rajat Patidar (RCB) — all these men will lead their new teams. Their goals? Shreyas will be out to prove that KKR bungled in not retaining him, Rahane has to defend a title he did not win, Pant will be aware what happened to the last LSG captain after a few bad losses, Axar must show that DC did the right thing in choosing him over KL Rahul for captaincy and Patidar has the toughest job of them all, to win RCB an IPL title.
The edge in age
As Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 43, says it in an IPL teaser from the broadcasters, he had won an IPL trophy even before this year’s youngest participant was born. While the commercial doesn’t name anyone, the young lad being spoken about is Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who will turn 14 later this month. While that basically highlights Dhoni’s longevity as a player, the gulf between the oldest and youngest players of this IPL also shows us how broad is the IPL’s canvas. It’s for all ages, on and off the pitch.
On rookie hunt
There are quite a few of them, loaded with potential to take the IPL by storm. From Robin Minz, the left-handed powerhouse who is dubbed the “next Dhoni” and who can play the Helicopter Shot, to Suryansh Shedge who flaunted a strike of 252 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, to Ehsan Malinga, the Sri Lankan who not only shares the last name with the deadly slinger from the island nation but can also fire in those unplayable yorkers with a slingy action — IPL 2025 is set to witness a bunch of exciting youngsters.
On peak 300
Who will go there first? Will it be scaled in this IPL? Last year, Sunrisers made 287/3 against RCB in Bengaluru, the highest-ever total in the IPL.Team totals have breached the 250-run mark multiple times in the last couple of seasons. In fact, on the list of the highest IPL totals, the top five came last year itself. Expect the graph to go even higher this time.
Salivating on swing
With the decision to allow the use of saliva for bowlers to shine the ball, comes the chance of better balance in the contest between the bat and ball. Even then, it s still advantage batters in this slam-bang format where the pitches usually sport a dead-pan look.
Workload, too heavy?
How much is too much when it comes to Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, the premier pacers of Team India? Bumrah has been sidelined with an injury since January. Whenever he returns to action, it will be interesting to see how
Mumbai Indians manage his workload. The same goes for Sunrisers’ Shami. He is fit for now but having returned from a long injury layoff not too long ago, how many matches will he play in this IPL? With India’s tour to England scheduled after the IPL, Bumrah and Shami will surely be handled with care.