Contenders of IPL 2025: DC, PBKS, LSG and KKR in rat-race to make it to top-four

‌An Indian Premier League season immediately following the mega-auction brings with it a fair share of intrigue and expectations. IPL 2025 has been no different, with defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders finding themselves down the ladder and teams like Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings, with no winning legacy behind them, putting in a good show to remain in contention.

With just three points separating the teams from fourth to seventh this year, DC, PBKS, LSG, and KKR are all in the race and do not have any margin of error as they set sail for their remaining matches. Let us have a look at the contenders who are in the hot seat for that final playoff spot and ready to make that final jump in the league stages of IPL 2025.

After parting ways with Rishabh Pant, their captain and top scorer from the prior season, Delhi Capitals’ approach at the auction table was seen with a lot of scepticism. The side did not have a top-order batter who could go slam-bang from ball one, apart from Jake Fraser-McGurk, as the management chose experience over flamboyancy. 

Their decision bore fruit courtesy of the senior duo of KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis as DC went on a four-match winning spree to go on top of the points table at the start of the tournament. Rahul has hit a purple patch, going past 300 runs and also finds himself in the top-ten run-getters list this year averaging an excellent 60.66 and striking at 146.18. Meanwhile, du Plessis has played only four matches this season, missing some due to injury, and averages above 25 with a strike rate of 132.05.

Fraser-McGurk’s horrific returns this season have overshadowed Abishek Porel’s exploits of 257 runs at a strike rate of 153.89. The Australian’s lean patch has not allowed DC to set the stage on fire in the powerplay, ranking sixth among all teams for runs scored and eighth for their average and strike rate in the first six overs. But what bails them out is the middle phase, where the side has the best average among all teams as well as the third-best strike rate. Rahul and Tristan Stubbs average a combined 81.3 against spin with a strike rate of 136.3 in IPL 2025 and have driven the show in the middle phase. Coming to death overs, it has been even better as the side tops the batting charts with Ashutosh Sharma and Stubbs, DC’s only foreign retention from last year, ensuring an excellent strike rate of 186.67 in the final four overs.

All that said, what truly holds DC in the contender seat is its bowling unit. Kuldeep Yadav has had an excellent season after being retained by the Capitals ahead of the mega auction. The left-arm spinner has already picked up 12 wickets, the most by a DC bowler this season, at an excellent economy rate of 6.55 to dominate proceedings in the middle overs. The pace duo of Mitchell Starc and Mukesh Kumar have pushed DC to second on the wickets table in the powerplay while also being the second-most economical side in the death overs.

With Karun Nair’s introduction, has DC found their answer to the powerplay scoring problem? That, together with Axar Patel’s form with the ball towards the business end of the league, will decide whether they make the playoffs this season or not.

With six players retained from the title-winning side in IPL 2024 and an experienced Ajinkya Rahane at the helm, Kolkata Knight Riders was considered a sure-shot playoffs team. But what has transpired is a bit difficult to digest, showing once again that sport is fickle and unpredictable.

Nothing has gone well for KKR on the batting front right from their top-order into the middle and lower middle-order, with the Mumbai duo of Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi their only saving graces with tallies of 271 and 197 runs respectively. KKR has the third-worst tally of runs in the powerplay phase while they are at the bottom of the rung in the middle and death overs. Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, KKR’s costliest buy Venkatesh Iyer, and new recruit Quinton de Kock have undergone a collective failure to turn the Kolkata-based fortunes upside down.

To add to their misery, KKR’s home record has been anything but commendable this season, with three losses and a solitary win as well as one match being abandoned without any result due to rain. This stands contrary to their record last year, when they won five times and lost only twice on their way to winning the title. 

On the bowling front, the Indian pace duo of Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana have been ineffective upfront with KKR picking up only 11 wickets during the powerplay, just one more than Rajasthan Royals who have the worst count. This is in stark contrast to previous year’s figures where KKR jointly topped the powerplay wicket numbers with the new ball fetching 28 scalps.

Spin has once again been KKR’s forte this season with Varun Chakravarthy topping their wicket charts, his 11 scalps coming at an impressive economy of 6.85. He has played a key role in KKR having the second-best economy and wicket-count in the middle phases while topping the charts for average and strike rate. 

Can Rahane and Chandrakant Pandit get the best out of their main man Sunil Narine with the bat and can the struggling middle order pull their weight before it gets too late? Time will tell whether KKR will get a chance to defend their title or not.

If someone had to go only by the auctions ahead of the tournament to pick a favourite, Punjab Kings would surely be one. Retaining just two players, they went all out during the bidding to cover all bases with Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting forming a potent combination at the helm.

And it started off in style too with the Kings notching up three wins in their first four matches. However, this was the third such instance in their history – they failed to make the playoffs on both previous occasions in 2011 and 2018. They seemed set for a similar trajectory when they ended up conceding a 240+ chase with an over to spare against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but the lowest defense in IPL history against Kolkata Knight Riders the very next game saw them put down a marker that this year is going to be different.

A large reason for such confidence has been the form of their domestic players. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh have set the tone for their success with freedom up top and are respectively the top run-getters for their side with impressive strike rates too. Consequently, Punjab are one of only five teams to notch more than 500 powerplay runs, while also boasting the second-best strike rate in the first six overs. 

Similarly, middle order duo of Shreyas Iyer and Nehal Wadhera have helped the team hold their own even when the Australian trio of Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis and Glenn Maxwell have together accounted for only 171 runs this season. But given the aggressive style Punjab plays, there are more chances that they face a collapse than not as evident in their 111-run surrender against KKR, albeit they won the contest.

The same middle-order fragility plagues the team’s bowling too as the team has conceded 200-plus totals in four of their seven matches. A big reason behind their struggles has been a lack of wickets up front, given the Kings have the second-least scalps and the third-worst economy during the first six overs. They have been over-dependent on Arshdeep Singh for powerplay breakthroughs and even though the left-arm quick has delivered with 11 wickets from nine matches, including four in the first six overs, it has not been enough to make up for Lockie Ferguson’s injury and Marco Jansen’s average of 105 with the new ball. Things are not much better in the middle overs either, with Yuzvendra Chahal looking a pale shadow of his IPL-self and his uncharacteristic start defining Punjab’s struggles between overs six and 16.

With the home record in this year’s IPL in the balance at two wins and losses apiece, Punjab has three more matches at Dharamsala, their second home ground. Can the Shreyas-Ponting duo rely on their domestic talent to give Punjab fans something to cheer for after a long long time? If they can motivate the foreign contingent to play to its potential, there is hardly any doubt where Punjab is heading.

Lucknow Super Giants’ roller-coaster ride began in the auction itself when they made Rishabh Pant the costliest buy in IPL history, only for him to have a freakishly poor tournament with both bat and as skipper of the side. Thankfully, the Super Giants top-order has been more than content carrying the burden, with Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran scoring 56.64% of their total runs this year to make LSG a powerplay machine.

The vice-captain – Goenka’s only foreign retention – had a particularly impressive start, smashing four fifties in the first six games but his returns of late read a more humble 8, 11, 9 and 27. Perhaps it is no coincidence that LSG’s form has mirrored that of the explosive southpaw with the side losing three of their last four matches after a promising start. While no competition for Pant’s struggles, David Miller has not fired as expected either, leaving the young shoulders of Ayush Badoni to do the heavy lifting any time the top-three fail. The Indian’s efforts, though admirable, have only culminated in LSG having the worst average at the death with their strike rate only better than Chennai Super Kings, which isn’t saying much.

The team felt better stacked when it came to bowling, yet injuries to four of their frontline pacers meant the team was thoroughly blindsided. The replacements have leaked too many runs with the new ball, making LSG the most expensive side during the first six overs by conceding 10.5 runs an over on average. To be fair, the return of three of their pacers did not improve matters much either, as LSG still have scalped only 13 wickets during the powerplay, the second-worst compared to other teams.

Mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi has been the lone bright spot in the LSG bowling line-up while Avesh Khan has also sparked hope by hitting top gear of late. The duo has picked up 10 wickets each, conceding 7.75 and 9.61 runs per over respectively. Though Shardul Thakur has been Lucknow’s top wicket-taker with 12 dismissals, he has been costly as well with an economy of 11.20.

With three of their last four matches against sides that are placed above them on the table, LSG will need players other than their top three to put their hand up. With time running out for the side, Rishabh Pant finds his back against the wall. Can he and LSG show resilience and character to push their way into the top four?