IPL 2025 Playoffs Preview: How the final 4 teams of IPL 2025 look ahead of the Final Stage of the tournmament?

 After 2 months, 1 week of break because of war and 70 matches, with 10 teams battling out with 1 another in the biggest T20 League of the world, we are finally heading towards the IPL Playoffs. This IPL was entertaining as always with multiple nail-bitters and stunning performances but it was also one of the most one-sided season as far as the playoffs qualification is concerned as the 4 Playoff Teams were decided 1 week before the completion of league stage. However, the order of the 4 teams got finalized yesterday after Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Lucknow Super Giants in a historic run-chase at Ekana Stadium, Lucknow. The 4 Playoffs Qualified teams are: Punjab Kings(PBKS), Royal Challengers Bengaluru(RCB), Gujarat Titans(GT) and Mumbai Indians(MI).

PBKS & RCB will face each other in the Qualifier-1 at New PCA Stadium, Mullanpur on 29th May and the winner of this game will go straight into the finals. The loosing  team will still get 1 more shot to qualify for finals as the loosing team of Qualifier-1 will face the winner of the Eliminator which is scheduled to take place between GT & MI on 30th May at Mullanpur in Qualifier-2 scheduled at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on 1st June. The winner of Qualifier-2 will then play the winner of Qualifier-1 at Ahmedabad on 3rd June for the IPL Trophy. All the 4 teams have undoubtedly played amazing cricket, but who has higher chances of winning the IPL Title? Will PBKS break their trophy drought of 18 years? Will RCB finally touch an IPL Trophy? Will GT win their 2nd title within just 4 years of inception? or Will MI clinch their 6th trophy and officially become the most successful IPL Franchise? Let's check where the teams actually stand?

1. Punjab Kings

I had rated Punjab Kings as the dark horse of IPL 2025 because of the quality of their overseas all-rounders, fine-group of youngsters and a successful Captain-Coach duo of Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting & they have performed excpetionally well and are sitting at the top of the table with 19 Points in 14 games. The standout thing about their campaign is the rise of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh. PBKS was the only team in IPL 2025 which had 2 uncapped Indian Players as their main opener and both the players have performed exceptionally well. Prabhsimran repaid the faith of the PBKS management and Ricky Ponting after being retained as an uncapped player and Priyansh Arya has been the find of the season and a top contender for emerging player award. Prabhsimran and Priyansh are 2nd and 3rd highest run-getters of Punjab Kings with Prabhsimran scoring 499 runs at a strike-rate of 165.78 and Priyansh scoring 424 runs at a strike-rate of 183.54. Besides the opening pair, Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh are the other 2 Indian uncapped batters who have delivered for Punjab Kings with Wadhera scoring 298 runs at a strike-rate of 152.04 in 12 innings while batting in the middle-order batting at No.4(4 innings) & No.5(8 innings) and Shashank has been the main finisher for PBKS and has scored 284 runs at a strike-rate of  149.47 while batting at different batting positions and in different situations. The leading run-scorer of PBKS is their captain Shreyas Iyer who is having a dream-run in all the forms of game since IPL 2024. Iyer scored  514 runs at a strike-rate of 171.90 in 14 innings while batting at No.3 and No.4 & has been fantastic both as a batter and as a leader. The main reason of Punjab Kings success is their Indian core of batters and their consistent performances. Besides the Indian batters, overseas players like Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis have also played some impactful knocks whenever they got a chance to bat. PBKS have been undoubtedly the best batting team of IPL 2025. PBKS scored more than 200 runs in 7 out of 14 innings which is a huge achievement. However, they lost 2 out of the 7 games and 1 match was washed out because of rain which raises some concerns over their ability to defend totals. However, PBKS scripted history against KKR on 15th April, 2025 by defending 111 at Mullanpur which is the lowest total ever defended in IPL. 

Now, let's talk about the bowling unit. PBKS bowlers have been great in this IPL with Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen leading the pace department with 18 and 16 wickets respectively in 14 games(1 washout). Yuzvendra Chahal took 2 4-fers in this season and overall has taken 14 wickets in 11 innings.  Alongside these 3 bowlers, Harpreet Brar, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson(now ruled out), Glenn Maxwell(now ruled out), Vyashak Vijayakumar and Azamatullah Omarzai have been good as support bowlers with each of them having atleast 1 or 2 impactful performances.

The strategy for Punjab Kings has to be simple: Outbat the opponent. PBKS have won 4 games while chasing and lost just 1, while they managed to win 5 games while batting first, lost 3 and 1 game ended without a result. The stats suggest that PBKS should opt to bowl 1st if they win the toss, but things are not that simple. Mullanpur as well as Ahmedabad have not been chasing-friendly venues in IPL 2025. Only once in 4 games, a team managed to chase a total successfully in Mullanpur. The same goes for Ahmedabad, where only once a total was chased successfully in 7 games  at the venue. However, the pitches at Mullanpur and Ahmedabad have been very different. In the 1st 2 games at Mullanpur, the team batting 1st posted a total of more than 200 and defended it successfully as well. Whereas the 3rd game was a low-scoring thriller between PBKS & KKR and the 4th game also observed a modest total of 158 being posted on the board by PBKS which was successfully chased by RCB. So, the conditions at Mullanpur will be best known by tomorrow during the match only. 

On the other hand, Ahmedabad has been a batting paradise this season. In all the 7 games, team batting 1st posted a total in excess of 190 out  of which 200 was breached in 6 out of 7 games. So, we can expect a batting-friendly pitch for Qualifier-2 and Finals at Ahmedabad. 

Looking at the performance of PBKS this season, I feel they will perform better at Motera than Mullanpur as the Ahmedabad wicket perfectly matches with the main strength of PBKS i.e. batting. The bowling unit of PBKS is slightly weakened as Marco Jansen will be unavailable for Playoffs. Along with bowling Jansen also provided the much-needed batting depth to PBKS. But, PBKS can compensate it a bit by playing Azamatullah Omarzai for the Playoff Games.

2. Royal Challengers Bengaluru

RCB have been fantastic in IPL 2025 be it with the bat or with the ball. RCB managed to find new heroes in different games which is a key strength of a well-balanced team. As every player has contributed for the team in 1 way or other throughout the season, RCB are sitting at the 2nd position in the Points Table. The 2 major things to be noted in their IPL Campaign is: Fantastic Performances away from home and Exceptional Performance in run-chases. RCB won 7/7 away games in IPL 2025, they lost a game against SRH at Ekana Stadium, Lucknow but that wasn't an away game technically as it was originally scheduled at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Among the 7 away games, they also defeated Punjab Kings at Mullanpur whom they are facing in the Qualifier-1 at the same venue, which is a huge confidence booster. Another thing to be noted is their exceptional record while chasing. RCB have won 5/6 games while chasing in IPL 2025. Out of these 6 games, RCB won comfortably against KKR and RR, won against DC after loosing 3 wickets in the powerplay, won a tricky chase against PBKS & chased  a massive total of 228 vs LSG, which is the 3rd highest successfully chased total in IPL History and the highest ever for RCB to seal a spot in Top-2. 

The key performer in all the 7 chases was Virat Kohli who scored 5 50s in all the 5 games RCB won while chasing. Overall, he has scored 602 runs in 13 innings at a strike-rate of 147.91 while opening the innings and provides much needed stability to the RCB batting unit. He scored 8 50s in this IPL season and RCB won all those 8 games. These stats prove that he is the most valuable batter of RCB and if RCB has to win the IPL, he has to continue his form  in the playoffs as well. His opening partner is Phil Salt who provides the much needed fire-power to the RCB batting unit. He has scored 331 runs in 11 innings at a strike-rate of 171.50. The Salt-Kohli duo has 6 50+ partnerships in 11 innings which is exceptional to say the least. Besides the opening pair, batters like Rajat Patidar, Devdutt Paddikal(now ruled out), Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell(now unavailable), Krunal Pandya and Mayank Agrawal have played atleast 1 outstanding knock. 

RCB have been excellent while chasing but poor while defending the targets as well. RCB won 4/7 games while batting first and all the 3 losses were at Chinnaswamy. Out of the 4 won games, the victory margin was 12, 11 and 2 runs against MI, RR and CSK respectively. In all these games RCB had posted an above 200 total but still they couldn't win those matches in a dominating manner. PBKS will surely have this confusion in mind while playing against RCB if they win the toss, should they bat 1st as per Stadium Data which gives RCB a chance to chase the target which is their strength or to bowl 2st and try to expose RCB's batting unit in the 1st innings despite recent trend of the pitches show wins for teams batting 1st.

Now let's talk about RCB's bowling. RCB have overall been a great bowling side with exceptional performances from Josh Hazlewood who is the 4th highest wicket-taker of the season despite pllaying only 10 games, Krunal Pandya who is the 4th highest wicket-taker among spinners and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. These 3 lead bowlers were well supported by Suyash Sharma who bowled a few economical spells and Yash Dayal who has bowled some crucial overs and picked some big wickets as well. It looks a good bowling unit and they have excellent performances to show as well, but without Hazlewood, RCB conceded 200+ runs in 3 consecutive matches which shows the bowling unit's dependence on Josh Hazlewood. So, RCB would hope that  Hazlewood remains fully-fit and delivers exceptional performance in the playoffs to help RCB clinch the title.

Overall, I feel that RCB's bowling is better suited for Mullanpur and RCB as a unit will struggle at Motera.

3. Gujarat Titans

Gujarat Titans are at No.3 position on the points table and will face MI in Eliminator on 30th May at Motera. GT's Top-order trio of Sai Sudarshan, Shubhman Gill and Jos Buttler played exceptionally well throughout the torunament and are among the Top-10 run-getters of the season with Sai and Gill being the top-2 run-getters and Buttler being the 8th. Jos Buttler will not be available for Playoffs, this adds a lot of responsibility on Sai and Gill. The middle order of GT didn't get much game-time throughout the season but whet they got, the results were not promising. Sherfane Rutherford played some crucial innings but he has not shown the temparament of playing a blinder of 70-80 runs if the openers are dismissed early. Shahrukh Khan has also a couple of good innings but hasn't been consistent. Tewatia is proven finisher. Washington Sundar had a good game against SRH, but overall for GT apart from top-3 only Shahrukh Khan has scored a half-century and this is a serious cause of concern, Kusal Mendis has replaced Jos Buttler for playoffs but he doesn't have IPL experience. Overall, GT's batting unit is hugely dependent on their openers and they will need to deliver if GT has to win the title.

Now let's talk about GT's bowling. GT's bowling performed exceptionally well for the majority of the season, but bowling performances have dipped massively after the IPL restarted after 1 week of break. In the last 3 matches GT conceded 199 against DC, 235 against LSG and 230 against CSK. Rashid Khan has been out of form throughout the tournament, Mohammed Siraj has been great with the new ball but poor in the death, the likes of Arshad Khan, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee have been just average. Prasidh Krishna and Sai Kishore have been the best bowlers for Gujarat Titans with 23 and 17 wickets respectively in 14 games each, but they will need the support from other bowlers especially Mohammed Siraj and Rashid Khan who are the 2 senior-most players of the team.

The strategy for GT should be simple: Sai and Gill need to have a long opening partnership at a run-rate of more than 9.00 and other batters should play useful cameos around them, this is the best possible tactic for GT to perform well with the bat. GT does look a deplted side in absence of Jos Buttler. If Gt has to bowl 1st in the playoffs, the bowlers have a huge responsibility on their shoulders. Gt are a team that can chase any target upto 200 but will struggle to chase anything above 210. With the eliminator to be played at Mullanpur, GT must restrict MI somewhere around 180-190 to win and proceed to Qualifier-2. I expect GT bowling to perform well against MI at Mullanpur just like they did at Motera and Wankhede in the league stage. If GT wins at Mullanpur, they have to win 2 games at Motera to clinch their 2nd title.

4. Mumbai Indians

The 4th team in the playoffs is Mumbai Indians. At 1 point of time, in the tournament MI looked invincible as they won 6 consecutive games and were at 14 points in 11 games, but then things started to slip a bit from hands and they lost 2 out of their next 3 games ending at 4th position in the Points Table with 16 points. The best about MI this season was a new hero emerging in different games. In the 8 games won by MI, there were 7 different players to win the Player Of The Match award which is just 2nd after RCB who have 8 different players to win atleast 1 Player Of The Match award. Despite having multiple match-winners in the team, MI batting looks overdependent on Suryakumar Yadav who has scored 640 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 167.97 and is the 3rd highest run-getter of the tournament. Rohit Sharma scored 3 50's in 13 innings but has been mediocre otherwise. Hardik Pandya had 2 great performances as all-rounder against LSG and RCB in loosing cause & then had 2 quick-fire knocks of 21 in 8 balls against SRH and 48 in 23 balls against RR in winning cause & picked some crucial wickets game after game but still the performance doesn't look upto the mark. Naman Dhir has proved to be an excellent finisher. Ryan Rickelton had a decent season as an opener considering this is the 1st time, he is playing T20 cricket in Indian Conditions and he is unavailable for Playoffs. Will Jacks was mediocre with the bat with only 1 half-century in 11 innings but he contributed decently with the bowl making him the only MI player to win 2 Player Of The Match Awards in IPL 2025 and he is unavailable for the Playoffs as well. Tilak Varma has a dull season as a batter with 274 runs in 11 innings at a strike-rate of 131.73. 

With 2 main batters of the MI batting lineup being unavailable, batting looks like a huge concern for MI. Rickelton and Jacks have been replaced with Jonny Bairstow and Charith Asalanka. While, Bairstow has enough IPL experience, Asalanka is new to IPL. In such case, senior players like Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya must deliver in playoffs alongside Suryakumar Yadav who is in the form of his life. Tilak Varma also needs to perform in Playoffs, given that he has been mediocre in the league stage.

Now, let's talk about MI's bowling lineup. Mi have an excellent bowling attack led by Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult. Boult is the 3rd highest wicket-taker in this IPL season with 19 wickets in 14 innings, while Bumrah, despite missing the 1st 4 games of the season is the 6th highest wicket-taker of the season with 17 wickets in 10 games at an economy of 6.33. MI also have Mitchell Santner and Hardik Pandya who have provided them crucial breakthroughs throughout the season. Deepak Chahar has done decently well this season with the new ball but hasn't been good in the middle and death overs. Ashwani Kumar and Karn Sharma are other 2 Indian bowling options for MI. MI have signed Richard Gleeson as a replacement of Corbin Bosch who is unavailable for playoffs and he might get a chance during the playoffs as well. Overall, bowling is the biggest strength of MI and if MI wants to win their 6th title the bowling unit needs to deliver.

I feel that the MI bowling unit will come good at Mullanpur as both Bumrah and Boult had an excellent game at Mullanpur against PBKS in the 2024 season. The slow nature of the Mullanpur pitch will suit Santer and Karn Sharma as well. Hardik has a huge role to play with the ball in Mullanpur as well as Motera with his hit-the-deck bowling and variations. Mi will surely miss Jacks as a part-time off-spinner in Mullanpur. After winning at Mullanpur, MI need to cross the Ahmedabad hurlde as well. MI have lost their last 4 games at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad where they have to play Qualifier-2 and Final if they win the eliminator.

Overall, MI are better suited for Mullanpur than Ahmedabad for the IPL 2025 playoffs.

Conclusion: The IPL 2025 playoffs will be cracking with 4 great games back-to-back and I feel that this time IPL will get a new champion.