The 2nd week in IPL 2025 is over.
The first 5 have matches saw 3 games where 200 was crossed. SRH threatened 300 in their first match itself. And in the first match RCB chased down 175 with ridiculous ease rising to the speculation that 300 can be breached sooner rather than later. However the next 6 matches saw bowlers having their say as well and 200 hasn’t been put on the board in these last 6 matches.
All teams except PBKS have played 2 or more games and should have a fair idea how their combinations are working out after the mega auction that took place in November last year.
It is interesting to see the 3 most powerful teams, SRH, MI, KKR and CSK, on paper are all languishing the bottom half of the table. It is early days but CSK and MI are not showing good signs.
MI are traditionally slow starters but they need to get their act together soon before it is too late. Their batting didn’t seem to click in the 2 matches they have played . But they have too much quality in their batting line-up that you would expect that it would click sooner rather than later. And if Bumrah can join them soon their bowling will look quite well as well.
For CSK the issue is again the same, their batting has not come through in the two matches that they have played. But their problem is more about the skill in their batting department. They seem to be lacking fire power in their batting department. Only Shivam Dubey is the one who is capable of doing it, but it would be too much to expect from him to carry all the burden of power hitting. The Chennai pitch in the game against RCB was more batting friendly than the traditional Chennai wicket. Their best chance is the spin friendly traditional Chennai pitch where ball doesn’t come to the bat so nicely. They do not seem to have the batting to match the likes of SRH, MI etc and they will find it hard against these teams on their home grounds but at least they should ensure that they win the home games by asking some help from their curator. For away games at the batting friendly pitches like Wankhede, Hyderabad, Chinnaswamy etc they may need to think out of the box a bit. Can they send Jamie Overton at the top to make use of power play as Rahul Tripathi seems to be struggling. MS Dhoni definitely needs to come higher than number 9 which he did in the last match, they should continue with it.
RCB’s campaign have started with a bang winning both of their opening games quite convincingly. They do have some holes in their squad especially in their bowling department. They don’t have any quality spinner. It would be intersting to see if they can carry on this form.
DC have also won both of their opening games. Their batting was looking a bit light. However they would be very encouraged to see the form of Faf Du plesis, the finishing role that Ashutosh carried out and with the emergence of Vipraj, their batting looks in good order. Their bowling is also looking good with Mitchell Starc and Kuldeep Yadav in wicket taking form.
KKR, LSG and GT have mixed start to their campaign having each one of the two games that they played.
SRH have arguably the most dangerous batting line up in the competition. And they did demonstrate that in their first game when they scored 286 against RR. HOwebver they seem to have gotten ahead of themselves and seem to have been fixated to cross the 300 barrier and in the process fell short in the next two matches and lost those games. They may want to rethink their strategy a bit if at some time, depending upon the match situation or the pitch, they can go at one gear lower instead of going at full throttle all the time.
RR did not have a good start to their campaign having lost 2 out of 3 matches. Their bowling was looking a bit light in the first two matches with their lead bowler Jofra Archer leaking lot of runs. In the first two matches, his figures read 6.3-0-109-0 having conceded most runs in the history of IPL in their first match with the figures of 4-0-76-0. Howver he did have a good outing in their last match and so did their other two Overseas bowler. They will hope that they can continue thir form going forward in their tournament. Their batting have looked alright but the form of Yashasvi Jaiwal will concern them a bit.
I did pick PBKS as the dark horse of this tournament in my IPL 2025 review and they have begun brightly, looking forward to see how their campaign unfolds. Shreyas Iyer’s form holds the key to their success but they have depth in their squad.
