IPL 2025 playoff race | Who will be the last four standing?

Salt will look to indicate his price in RCB colors.
| Photo Credit: X@RCBTWEETS

Predicting favourites is hard enterprise. It is an train that without delay feels very rational and logical but in addition instinctive and guesswork-heavy. In a contest like the IPL, it’s all the tougher, for squads are chopped and altered each three years.

Yet, wanting again at 17 years of historical past, one can declare to have some foreknowledge about how issues could finally pan out. We know the way sure captains function, a number of coaches strategise and a variety of pitches behave.

With the assist of previous info, a dose of intuitive intelligence and a giant prayer, right here is an try to zero-in on a possible top-four, not essentially in that order.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: SRH’s ultra-aggressive batting last 12 months took the IPL by storm and performed a giant position in the facet reaching the closing. For the 2025 version, it has retained the gamers who helped obtain that — Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy — and has added the dashing Ishan Kishan. It has reshuffled the bowling pack however certainly not does it seem insufficient, for it has introduced in the likes of Mohammed Shami. In Pat Cummins, there’s a calm head at the high, which in the breakneck world of T20 cricket can typically be the distinction between victory and defeat.

Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR doesn’t have Shreyas Iyer, its title-winning captain from 2024. It doesn’t have Mitchell Starc, the bowler who spelt doom for opponents in the playoffs. And it doesn’t have mentor Gautam Gambhir and his band of merry males. But it has all the time been a group with a near-perfect mixture of novelty and time-testedness. If appointing Ajinkya Rahane as the captain was a patented left-field transfer, retaining Andre Russell, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, and welcoming again Venkatesh Iyer for a good-looking worth (₹23.75 crore) was a pointer in direction of continuity. Another run to the enterprise finish could be very a lot in the realm of chance.

Delhi Capitals: On paper, DC has an excellent set of gamers. But as the adage in elite sport goes, two plus two not often equals four. Yet, DC’s is a squad that’s brimming with promise and feels so filled with prospects. If it doesn’t end amongst the four finest groups, it will be mighty disappointing. Its overseas contingent is swashbuckling, for it contains Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Tristan Stubbs and Starc. The homegrown expertise is tried and examined with the likes of Ok.L. Rahul, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar and Mohit Sharma. The spin mixture of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav is one thing most sides will kill to have. So what’s to not like?

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: For so long as one can bear in mind, RCB has been the butt of everybody’s jokes. Despite the overarching presence of Virat Kohli, it has by no means gained the IPL and has misplaced thrice in the closing. But this season, there’s real perception that it has constructed an outfit that’s succesful sufficient. Its major abode, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, affords no discernible residence benefit, for it’s small, liked by each batter in the world and sends most bowlers – together with these from RCB – on leather-based hunts. Yet, for the upcoming marketing campaign, it looks like RCB has the requisite power-hitting functionality and astute bowlers to counter largely unfriendly situations. Ee sala cup….