We're one round into IPL 2025 and this season has started in very much the same way as last with some massive run scoring and monumental six hitting across the games played to date.
Following the mega-auction, all 10 franchises have come into the season with a new look and its noticeable that it's been those players picked up in the off-season who have had the biggest impact so far.
Krunal Pandya for RCB, Ishan Kishan for SRH, Noor Ahmad for CSK, Ashutosh Sharma for DC and Shreyas Iyer for PBKS have all turned in match winning performances on debut vindicating the significant sums that their respective teams invested in them over the off-season. Can they carry that form forward for the rest of the season?
AI generated image using ChatGPT
Here I'll give an overview of the first impressions of each side and look ahead to their next round of fixtures.
CSK
CSK put in a very CSK performance on a very Chennai like pitch to beat Mumbai Indians with relative ease at the Chepauk.
Of all the games in the opening round this one felt like a bit of a throw back to what T20 games were even 5 years prior. I commented in my season previews that the make up of the CSK squad was geared to winning on slower tracks where their plethora of spin bowling options and a deep batting line-up could prosper.
Let's be honest, it's not a major prediction, it's the way CSK have been successful in the IPL since its inception!
The acid test for CSK will ultimately come next month when they begin to play away at venues where the power hitters are already dominating. Do they have the batsmen to match that run scoring and the bowlers to at least prevent a blood bath?
Next up are RCB who got off to a good start away at KKR. I would, however, be surprised if CSK played their fairly limited spin options as badly as the reigning champions did.
The only surprises in that CSK squad for the intial game were Gaiwkad batting at 3 and the non-inclusion of Pathirana. The skipper dropping 1 slot down the order is perhaps representative of how well he plays spin compared to Tripathi who opened with Ravindra in an innings where only 6 overs of pace were bowled. As for the Sri Lankan slinger, I'm sure he will play a role on better batting surfaces but for now CSK will surely stick to their plan of spin it to win it!
Delhi Capitals
DC got off to a winning start in what was the game of the seasons far. At 7 for 3 after 10 deliveries and chasing 210 for victory, it felt like this match might be over before it really started. However, DC managed to rebuild and utilise their impact sub to give them that extra batter and it was ultimately Ashutosh Sharma who remained as cold as ice to see his team over the line.
At one stage, Ashutosh was 20 from 20 balls and with regular wickets falling at the other end it looked as though LSG would complete the win. However, DC's new finisher played what can only be described as a Dhoni-esque knock scoring an incredible 46 off his next 11 deliveries to power his team to an opening match win.
Despite his heroics, the concerns for DC remain the poor starts they made in both innings. Pooran and Marsh smashed the Capitals pace men around the park with ease and it was only the introduction of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav plus a flurry of wickets that managed to check the LSG charge.
DC then lost their 2 young power hitters in the first over to put themselves behind the 8-ball in the chase. It's only 1 innings in but I did question Fraser-McGurk's form coming into the tournament. The pressure will be on him to deliver early on in this tournament, especially with KL Rahul waiting in the wings.
Next up for DC are SRH. The onus will be on those Capitals seamers to start significantly better than they did in their opening match because we've already seen what the men in orange can do to a bowling attack that doesn't hit the ground running!
Gujarat Titans
GT were never really out of the run chase against PBKS but at no point were they ever ahead of the rate either.
Ultimately, the difference when chasing a score of 240+ can often come down to a couple of overs and that's exactly what occured in this match. GT failed to hit a boundary in either the 15th, 16th and 17th over scoring just 18 runs off 18 balls.
ESPN's win predictor below shows how significant that period was in determining the outcome of the match as it swung from a 50/50 to an near certainty for the visitors.
win probability GT vs PBKS
Perhaps the biggest talking point of the GT innings was the decision to push Jos Buttler down to bat at number 3. Was that because he's been struggling with form lately or because GT felt they'd like a left hand / right hand combination at the top of the order?
Whatever the thinking, it was a curious one. Buttler is the 4th most impactful batsmen in the history of the IPL and he's had most of that impact from an opening spot.
GT welcome MI to Ahmedabad on Saturday. Of course, it's a long season but no one wants to lose their first 2 matches...
KKR
The idea was to write this blog after each side had played 1 match each but other things got in my way. Anyway, it means we can analyse KKR's performance across 2 games instead and what a difference there was between each!
Against RCB, KKR started their innings poorly, recovered and then collapsed against some really average slow bowling. I know it's T20, so most of the dismissals can be seen as 'soft' in comparison to longer form cricket but their much vaunted middle order of Venki, Russel and Rinku all got out missing straight deliveries! Credit to the bowlers in playing the odds but it was generally a poor batting display.
With ball in hand, they were desperate to get their own spinners into the act very early on. Chakravarthy can bowl in the powerplay and is a good match-up against RCB's openers but I felt that given movement and a bit of uneven bounce that Hazlewood in particular had extracted from the surface that KKR's best chance was use Harshit Rana early on to take wickets and then squeeze with the slower bowlers during the middle.
It was noticeable then that they didn't use spin the powerplay against RR in a match that they dominated from start to finish even without their star man Narine who was unwell.
Of course, the other big factor to consider in that regard is dew and the impact it has on the ability for spinners to grip the ball. Given that KKR are almost certain to play 2 frontline spinners throughout the tournament, it does raise the question of how effective their attack will be when they're asked to defend. The real answer will only become apparent once their top order has batted first and put a good score on the board.
Next up for then is MI at the Wankhede where spin more generally doesn't tend to fair well...
Lucknow Super Giants
LSG will be very disappointed that they didn't manage to close out the game against Delhi. They really had their opponents on the ropes for most of the match but especially at the half way point of their innings when Pooran and Marsh were flying and then again for the majority of the Capitals innings after they'd decapitated their top order.
In my season preview I brought into question much of the make-up of the LSG squad and on the basis of that first game, many of those issues have surfaced.
The bowling looks short of quality and in a season where once again, big runs seems to be easy to come by, it's likely to be the teams who can restrict, at least relatively speaking, that will be successful.
Then comes the middle order. Pant a 6 ball duck - ouch! He's not shown any form in this format of the game for a while (obviously he's missed a fair bit of cricket too) and now has the added responsibility of captaincy and keeping. It's a really big ask especially considering the resources he's got to work with.
LSG are also banking on the likes of Badoni and Shahbaz Ahmed. They're not bad players but they've been around long enough for us to know that they're not match winners.
I commented in my overall predictions (where I ranked LSG last) that it's very often the local Indian players who make the difference. LSG went into their first match with a top 5 made up of 4 overseas batsmen! They look very reliant on them to do the business backed up by a few also rans from numbers 6 to 8. It won't be enough to deliver success!
Mumbai Indians
MI lost their opening match! Well that's no surprise, they haven't won one since 2012!
On what was by far the toughest pitch of the opening round, MI's batting never quite clicked and their total was about par probably just under.
What really hurt them, and will continue to do so in those kind of conditions, is the lack of a bowling attack that can defend those type of totals.
In fact, MI used 13 overs of spin in the match, the most they have every used in the IPL but a significant portion of those overs were made up of Will Jacks and Naman Dhir who are handy bowlers to have up your sleeve but not exactly the kind of players you'd want to bank on bowling you 7 overs in the IPL every week.
https://www.instagram.com/iplt20/reel/DHjKIhisRRV/
MI's star performer was Vignesh Puthur, plucked out of the Kerala T20 leagues to make his IPL debut before he'd made a single appearance in any format of state cricket! Have MI just unearthed the piece of the jigsaw they've been missing for a very long time? Let's see how he goes now that everyone's had a look at him and he's not bowling at the Chepauk on what will probably be the best surface for spinners this season.
In that regard, MI travel to GT for their next game where they are likely to find a surface with a bit more pace and bounce. They also welcome back their captain, Hardik Pandya who is back from a suspension that carried over from last season.
PBKS
A great opening win for the dark horses in this season's IPL.
I mentioned in my previews, that based on Shreyas Iyer's pre-tournament comments, it felt like he was out to prove a point in this season's IPL. He's been hoovering up trophies as a captain over the last couple of years. Can he be the man to lead Punjab to the promised land? Let's be honest, even a top 4 finish would be a massive achievement in the context of their history.
What was noticeable beyond the individual batting brilliance of Shreyas was the tactical nouse PBKS showed in beating GT particularly by choosing to deploy their impact sub late in the game and after their opponents.
Commonly we see sides use their impact sub to simply lengthen their batting or bowling options at the change of innings. However, in this match, both sides held off until well into the 2nd innings of the match to deploy their subs.
GT's hand was forced somewhat by the fall of wickets and so they blinked first by sending in Sherfane Rutherford. PBKS meanwhile held back until the end of 13th over to introduce Vyshak and it was he who delivered 2 overs in the 3 over spell mentioned in GT's summary above that really changed the game in Punjab's favour.
The headlines as far as impact subs have very much gone to Ashutosh Sharma and his efforts for DC but I'd argue that Vyshak's contribution was just as impactful. Another in the long list of examples that bowlers will draw upon to complain that it's a batters game!
PBKS have to wait a full week between matches. On one hand, they'd probably quite like to keep the momentum of that opening win going. On the other, it is a chance for a side that retained just 3 players from last season, including resigning Arshdeep at auction, to get to know each other a little better.
RCB
Another much changed squad that will be very pleased to have gotten the campaign off to a winning start. RCB's big name players in the likes of Kohli, Salt, Patidar and Hazlewood really stepped up to the plate against KKR.
That being said, there were certainly moments in the game, particularly with ball in hand, where some of the perceived weaknesses in this RCB attack began to manifest themselves.
After a very strong first 3 overs in which Hazlewood's quality unsettled the KKR openers, the remainder of the powerplay and indeed the overs that immediately followed its conclusion certainly belonged to the opposition batsmen. However, Rasikh Salam and Krunal Pandya in particular were treated with distain in the powerplay overs that they bowled and it perhaps provided a blue print for the way that all sides will approach RCB - sit on Hazlewood and attack the rest in that powerplay.
If anything, RCB could have done with Hazlewood bowling at least a third over to really tighten the screws and potential pick up further wickets but they were clearly concerned about not having his experience at the back end too.
Credit however does have to go to the way RCB fought back despite the fact that their slow bowling oppositions still look amongst the weakest in the tournament.
Those resources and their batsmen's ability to play spin will be tested to the maximum by their next match against CSK.
Rajasthan Royals
A really tough start for the Royals who faced an SRH batting line-up that picked up where they left off last season.
As brilliant as SRH were and as true as that pitch was, you do have to question both the tactics of Rajasthan and their overall commitment on the pitch.
As soon as the Sunrisers openers got going, the fielders heads started to drop. Bowlers in T20 have always had to take a fairly phlegmatic view of the format. It is after all a batters game and given what we've seen over the past couple of years in terms of run-scoring that sentiment has never been more true. RR though looked shell shocked from pretty much the first ball and never managed to recover their composure.
That might well be down to the significant turnover in personnel that they experienced at the mega-auction, particularly within their bowling stocks. However, they were also without Sanju Samson (for contrast he's ranked 8th on the measure below) whose damaged finger is preventing him from fielding and captaining the side and of course they released Jos Buttler too.
It means that in comparison to the side that started last seasons campaign so strongly they have lost some of the most experienced IPL cricketers around in the space of 12 months and it showed!
| Player | IPL appearances | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Ashwin | 213 | 5th |
| Chahal | 161 | 9th |
| Buttler | 108 | 26th |
| Boult | 105 | 29th |
IPL experience of players released by RR prior to the mega auction. Rank refers to current players only
It was certainly a baptism of fire for debut captain Riyan Parag who looked lost for most of the innings.
Credit to the Royals for not completely folding with the bat because at 50-3 it looked as though they might suffer one of the biggest defeats in the history of the sport not just the league! They'll need to re-group quickly after that debacle and get their season back on track.
SRH
And so we finish with the side that demolished Rajasthan in their opening match.
As an Englishman, it's interesting that Dan Vettori (another Kiwi) and Pat Cummins (an Aussie) are playing cricket with the mindset that England have been attempting to master under Brendon McCullum.
Of course, 'Baz Ball' has a much better ring to it than 'Dan Ball' so hats off to the marketing boys for that one but on recent form its the men in orange whose performances warrant the plaudits.
Stability is very the key for this SRH team. There had been so much chopping and changing of coaches, captains and other backroom staff at SRH since the turn of the decade that being able to establish a clear vision for the way that they wanted to play was impossible. The Sunrisers players have certainly brought into this new philosophy and they appear to have the personal capable of pulling it off!
New boy Ishan Kishan was the star man for them and his interview during the innings break certainly highlighted how much he was enjoying the atmosphere in Hyderabad.
It's also difficult not to have taken what he said as a bit of a dig and MI and the widely reported issues that persisted in that dressing room last season.
SRH have certainly laid a marker for this season, can they continue to dominate sides and go one better than last year?