Weekly CRICKET Review - LXXXviIi | 2025 IPL

damithudaya (76)modAtlas Ambassador - LKin Steem Sri Lanka • 3 days ago

Hello, fellow Cricket Enthusiasts,

You already know I am sharing a weekly wrap-up of what is happening within the Cricket community. It's the 88th edition now. After the conclusion of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, India became the champions guess what's going on now! It's the IPL season!

We have already granted with action-filled T20I cricket. So, let's see what happening there.

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Using Canva & Getty Images

It's the 18th edition, started in 2008 and continuously entertaining the World Cricket. Ten teams will be competed in 74 matches from 22 March to 25 May 2025.

Yeah, I know there will be two months without international matches, just this league. Believe me, I am also not happy about how things are going with ICC lately. Hope these things won't ruin this beautiful gentlemen's game.

Anyway, as Kolkata Knight Riders are the defending champions they fought against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, in the first match. It's a comprehensive win from RCB.

A few months ago, I shared about the IPL MEGA Auction which was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25, with members from all 10 franchises

I discussed there about the team combinations, and how big bucks were shared among the players. The teams are almost the same with minor adjustments.

Group	Team	2024 performance	Head coach	Captain
A	Chennai Super Kings	5th	Stephen Fleming	Ruturaj Gaikwad
A	Kolkata Knight Riders	Champions	Chandrakant Pandit	Ajinkya Rahane
A	Punjab Kings	9th	Ricky Ponting	Shreyas Iyer
A	Rajasthan Royals	3rd	Rahul Dravid	Sanju Samson
A	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	4th	Andy Flower	Rajat Patidar
B	Delhi Capitals	6th	Hemang Badani	Axar Patel
B	Gujarat Titans	8th	Ashish Nehra	Shubman Gill
B	Lucknow Super Giants	7th	Justin Langer	Rishabh Pant
B	Mumbai Indians	10th	Mahela Jayawardene	Hardik Pandya
B	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Runners-up	Daniel Vettori	Pat Cummins

As you see the ten teams have been divided into two groups. There will be two matches against the opponents in the same group. And from the other group against one team, there will be two matches and only one with the others. So, overall there will be 14 matches per team, 7 home, and 7 away.

Fixtures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Indian_Premier_League#Fixtures

And as usual, the top four teams will move forward to the playoffs for the Qualifier, and Eliminator.

As you can see, there have been many changes in the captaincies. Cummins, Hardik, Gaikward, Gill, and Sanju Samson are performing the same as the last year. On the other hand, the defending champions let go of their captain Iyer, and have given the captaincy to Rahane. Meanwhile, Iyer is taking charge of kings.

LSG bought Pant for a massive price, and gave him the captaincy, while his former team DC is led by Axar. Surprisingly Rajat Patidar had the honour to captain the RCB team, despite being an uncapped player.

Chennai Super Kings’ MS Dhoni will be the oldest player at 42 years, playing his continuous 18th season. Meanwhile, RR gave the chance to 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi as the youngest player ever to play IPL.