IPL 2025: A brand new champion, a precocious 14-year-old and different key takeaways
The 2025 IPL, because it turned 18, was maybe simply what the physician ordered for the league. A brand new champion, a precocious 14-year-old turning the heads with a 35-ball century, loads of thrills ‘n spills supplied for some refreshing takeaways – the one jolt being when the league needed to be suspended for every week with rising stress on the India-Pakistan border.
Here’s a take a look at the 5 high speaking factors within the league which ended with Royal Challengers Bangalore pipping a spirited Punjab Kings to turn into the eighth crew in historical past to have received the cash-rich league. This leaves with two: Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Tremendous Giants and not using a trophy thus far.
Kohli & RCB finish a protracted wait
It was a heartening function for the league that RCB, which enjoys a worldwide following at par with Chennai Tremendous Kings and Mumbai Indians, lastly ended their drought on Tuesday. A lot as cricket could also be a crew sport, the saga of one-franchise man Virat Kohli ending his 18-year wait is being likened within the social media to that of Sachin Tendulkar taking 22 years to win the elusive ICC World Cup or Leo Messi vindicating his fame with the Qatar World Cup.
An over-the-top comparability, given the dimensions of the occasions, however the wait was actually as agonising. Kohli’s constant efficiency all through the event — 657 runs in 15 innings with eight fifties to finish because the third highest scorer within the event was instrumental in RCB success however there have been different elements as effectively. Rajat Patidar, a 32-year-old journeyman, was unaffected by the pressures of captaincy and rallied round his troops extraordinarily effectively whereas Phil Salt proved a fortunate mascot with back-to-back trophies on his IPL debut (with KKR final yr).
The tempo bowling division, which had prompted them sufficient headache – particularly in defending totals – seemed sorted with the return of Josh Hazlewood and Bhubaneshwar Kumar bringing all his expertise into play. Krunal Pandya, in the meantime, supplied the X-factor as a spinning allrounder.
Shreyas Iyer: A future white ball captain?
It was heartbreaking for the Punjab Kings crew, which prospered below the steering of head coach Ricky Ponting and captain Shreyas Iyer, to fall quick by six runs within the closing. Shreyas had a standout season, steering his facet to the highest of the league and into their second IPL closing with 604 runs, together with a heroic 87 in opposition to Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2.
Ponting, who had collaborated with an youthful Iyer throughout their Delhi Capitals days, endorsed his improvement: “He has grown as an individual, as a participant and a pacesetter.” As soon as touted as a future white ball captain of India, Shreyas has led three completely different IPL groups to finals and at 30, seems to be the very best guess to take over the function from an ageing Rohit Sharma or Suryakumar Yadav in not-so-distant future.
