Fans of cricket, rejoice! It’s that time of the year. In a matter of a few weeks the 2025 Indian Premier League will commence. This competition brings out the best out of international cricket, and many people compare it with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. While this is a long stretch, the quality is definitely there. Starting in March and ending in May, the IPL surely is a joy to behold for fans from all over the world.
2025 is the year when many fans and pundits argue that the best tournament ever could be in our hands. Many teams are looking to reach the top four finish that leads to playoffs. The ten team league is so fun because the best of the best face off on some of the most iconic Indian cricket grounds. If you’re looking to learn more about the teams participating, especially of those that we rank as the best IPL teams 2025 has to offer, you’ve come to the right place.
Squad Strength & Key Players: Who Stands Out?
Majority of us can’t wait for IPL 2025 to start. Cricket at its best, with top players, richest franchises, and filled stadiums brings a smile on the face of every true cricket fan. You’ll find people like us all over the web trying to get their views out on IPL 2025 squad rankings, and you’ll notice that all opinions differ. We all have our favorites. The same way you can check out good people from Stake on their IPL 2024 Team Previews Page where they’ve tried and guessed the previous season, and rankings, and see were they right or wrong, you can check out below the teams we see as top ones in the upcoming season.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
If you ask us, Sunrisers Hyderabad are the team with the best roster. The best part is that they already have chemistry between retained players such as Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy. As if those names weren’t enough this year they added Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar and Adam Zampa. Good squad, right?
Cummins will lead this team, but do not look at him – look at their bowling attack. It’s brand new. Shami, Harshal, Chahar, Jaydev Unadkat and Simarjeet Singh have enough firepower to make any opponent tremble. This IPL team stats will be through the roof once the season starts, mark our words. As far as the batting area is concerned Atharva Taide, Abhishek Sharma, and Abhinav Manohar should be enough for a fair challenge every game.
With only one title to their name Sunrisers Hyderabad are more than eager to add another to the cabinet and with the team at their disposal they just have enough start-power to do it. The team failed to end the drought that lasted since 2016 during the last year’s finals and will be looking to make amends this time around.
Mumbai Indians
Here we have one of the two most successful franchises that have 5 titles to their name. Indians are an amazing squad that has a great pull and thus they’ve retained names such as Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Tilak Varma. Not even their abysmal decision to change captaincy from Rohit to Hardik did bad things to team chemistry and all players were more than eager to return for another season. This core of Indian players goes well with the name of the team but they added a few international stars too in Trent Boult and Allah Ghazanfar. Thelikes of Naman Dhir and Deepak Chahar also deserve a mention.
This team is always looking to challenge for the title and this is why we have them so high on our IPL 2025 squad rankings list. You will have them there too when you see how the trio of Bumrah, Boult and Chahar operate on the field. Youngster Ghazanfar will be their wildcard, and you can expect dominance in every phase of the game. As if these names are not enough, their bench looks impressive too with the likes of Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, and Karn Sharma.
The only reason why they’re not topping our best IPL teams 2025 list is the fact that they may suffer in the keeping department if Ryan Rickelton doesn’t adapt quickly to the IPL.
More opinion you can find on Stake on tahir IPL 2025 Team Previews Page, and see are we on the same page.
Punjab Kings
Kings will march for the crown. Will it be an easy task? No! Can they do it? If things go their way, yes. Punjab Kings have never won the IPL. This year might be their chance as they’ve assembled the best roster in their history. New signings such as Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen and Yuzvendra Chahal brim with confidence. The two names came back after an exile – Arshdeep Singh and Harpreet Brar. They’re more than welcome. This team was carefully assembled, and the title challenge is a real possibility. They lack in the keeper as they do not have a home-grown keeper which is a reason for concern.
The way things stand now, PBKS will open with Josh Inglis and Prabhsimran Singh. Their No3 batter will most likely be Shreyas Iyer, who will be followed by Maxwell, Nehal Wadhera and Stoinis. Their power lies in the middle where Shashank Singh rests, as he has proven himself as a faithful and useful legionnaire in the past season.
With the right combo their batting sequences might be top notch. The Kings put a lot of faith in this unit, but even more in the bowling squad. Marco Jansen is a great addition to this squad. On his day, Marco will be a difference maker with both the bat and the bowl. With Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh and Chahal waiting in the shadows the Punjab Kings appear to be ready to mount a serious title challenge.
Delhi Capitals
Another challenger in our opinion. A good, stable, and balanced unit. Delhi Capitals will rely heavily on two names – Jake Fraser-McGurk and KL Rahul. The Capitals will open every inning with these lads, with Harry Brook, Tristan Stubbs, and Abishek Porel standing behind them. From the name recognition you can see that we’re talking about quality and experienced squads. They also have depth in the likes of Faf du Plessis and Sameer Rizvi. While they’re not hot favorites on sports betting outlets such as Stake.com we see them as a dark horse that could surprise many fans and pundits.
Axar Patel and the biggest signing from Punjab Kings Ashutosh Sharma will thrive in the role of finishers. With everything said, it is fine to have Delhi Capitals as one of the top four favorites to win the 2025 IPL, but their bowling unit could propel them even higher. Mitchell Starc and T Natarajan are enough to place fear in the bats of every opponent, but with Kuldeep Yadav in charge of spin, everyone should tremble before facing this team. The team is wrapped up with the likes of Mukesh Kumar or Mohit Sharma, and when you know that, you can see where our liking for Delhi Capitals is coming from.
While there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic for this team, a sole look at their middle field options leaves a lot to be desired. We believe that Harry Brook will play second fiddle to Faf du Plessis. Neither has enough IPL experience to pose a threat to opponents, but they can prove otherwise this season. We sure expect them to be visible on the IPL team stats at the end of the year. If they do not fix this issue come the season start, or at least along the way, they could easily fall out of the top four finish.
Historical Performance: How Past IPL Trends Shape 2025 Predictions
While history matters in plenty of departments of everyday life, and the same goes for sports, it doesn’t tell a too clear story when it comes to the Indian Premier League. The only team that has managed to win the title back-to-back are the Mumbai Indians. This is a clear sign that nothing is given in the IPL. What’s even more interesting is the fact that the Indians have failed to reach the final in any of the last four seasons and since the last final they’ve won.
Yet, the Mumbai Indians remain one of the two teams with five titles won. The second team is the Chennai Super Kings. This team has won the title five times, but unlike the Indians they have two titles in the last four years, and a final lost six years ago against the Indians themselves. Their history, and their recent success definitely makes them one of the teams to watch based on their past results.
Kolkata Knight Riders are the third most successful team in the history of the IPL, and the most recent winner. If you take a look at their history they have all the means of winning once again, but we do not see them as top favorites. After losing the final in 2021, they came back last year and took the trophy home once again. Historically the Indians, Riders, and Super Kings are the three most dominant teams winning 13 out of the possible 18 titles in the IPLs history.
As you can see, the past performances can play a role in the future results, as many teams have won more than one title and managed to get back to the finals more than once. Others at the same time have experienced both good years, and droughts of positive outcomes. So while history can bring out some of the good old favorites, it can also give birth to a few dark horses.
Who Are the Dark Horses This Season?
We’ve singled out some of the teams that can go far in this season of the IPL, and mentioned a few that are historically there every year. But are there teams that could be a strike of lighting, a four leaf closer, a dark horse in this year’s Indian Premier League? Yes there are, and we’re talking about:
Lucknow Super Giants
Super Giants are one of the teams that have never won the IPL. While they manage it this year? It’s hard to say yes. There’s a chance. Lucknow Super Giants have their chances in their batting unit. It is otherworldly with the likes of Rishabh Pant, David Miller, Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram featuring. These are all auction additions. Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni were already in the room. As far as batting goes, this team is monstrous. But, what about the bowling department?
Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan are still there. They’re aided by the auctioned bunch of Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, M Siddharth, Shahbaz Ahmed and Shamar Joseph. Yet, their bowlers fail in comparison to some other top teams. The difference will be visible on the field when game time comes. This is why we only have them listed as dark horses, and not fully fledged favorites.
Chennai Super Kings
Historically a great team, but we just don’t see this as the Chennai Super Kings season. Yes, they’ve got a hold of their top players such as Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni again. The core is there and it’s been reinforced by Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway. Top batting is strong with Super Kings, but in the middle it leaves a lot to be desired. While on paper Dube, Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Dhoni, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, and Jadeja appear to be a strong unit they’re not compared to top teams. Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary and Pathirana will roll out heavy in the bowling area, and the addition of Ravichandran Ashwin can be praised but we see them as nothing more as dark horse in this year’s IPL title race.
Title contenders, and dark horses, tradition, history, and desire for something new will all be faced in the 2025 IPL season and we can hardly wait for it any longer.
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