Ranking All 10 Teams In IPL 2025: Are GT & LSG The Worst Teams This Season?

#10 -  Lucknow Super Giants 

> LSG had a shocking auction, purchasing Shamar Joseph as the lone overseas speedster while splurging ₹27.00 cr on Rishabh Pant.

> Their entire Indian pace battery (Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan and Avesh Khan) is injured, so, at least for the first few games, they have a non-existent pace attack.

> To make matters worse, Ravi Bishnoi is the sole ‘experienced’ spinner in the squad, and he’s a defensive bowler as well. Where are the wickets going to come from?

> There is enough firepower with the bat, but all their key batters, barring David Miller, tend to blow extremely hot and cold.

> Pant, Marsh, Markram, Pooran all prefer batting in the top four, but LSG will be in trouble if they front-load the batting this much. That will put immense pressure on Miller to deliver every single game.

#9 - Gujarat Titans

> GT finished 8th in IPL 2024 and, this time around, are worse off than they were last season. 

> At the auction, they splurged ₹9.50 cr on Prasidh Krishna, who last played the IPL 3 seasons ago and has had only one season where he’s had an economy under 9.00.

> They failed to replace Noor Ahmad at the auction, meaning there will be enormous pressure on Rashid, not least because GT’s pace attack - Siraj, Rabada, Prasidh, Coetzee - consists of bowlers who are known for going for plenty.

> In Buttler, Gill and Sudharsan, GT have three monstrous run-machines up top, but is there enough dynamism in there? It’s a top three with an extremely high floor but a ceiling that’s lower than some of the other teams. It could prove to be an issue on 250-ish decks. 

> There’s a significant drop-off after the top three, and GT will once again require their uncapped Indian players to overperform to taste success. 

#8 - Rajasthan Royals

> RR have gone from being one of the best bowling sides to being a ‘meh’ bowling unit. 

> They’ve lost Boult, Chahal, Ashwin, Avesh and have replaced them with two injury-prone bowlers (Archer and Hasaranga) whose form & fitness are both question marks, and Maheesh Theekshana, who is good but not a point of difference. 

> They’ve lost Buttler, and Hetmyer is the only other overseas batter in the ENTIRE SQUAD. There is enormous pressure on one of Jaiswal or Samson - who will likely open together - to have a monstrous 650/700-run season. Plus, RR have put 14 cr worth of faith on Dhruv Jurel. 

> Shockingly enough, they have not addressed the #7 issue once again. And so if they play an extra bowler, Hasaranga might have to bat at No.7.

> Lastly, 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi. WHY? 

#7 - Punjab Kings

> New captain, new coach, a team that looks good on paper. But we’ve seen this story play out in the past with Punjab, haven’t we?

> Solid, well-rounded batting unit, with Marco Jansen at No.8 being the icing on the cake. But a few questions to solve: who opens with Prabhsimran? Does Inglis play? If yes, where does he bat? Stoinis in the top three or as a finisher? Maxwell at No.4 or further down the order? 

> Drop-off from Arshdeep to the other seamers is significant. Things could get ugly if Arshdeep does not end up having a stellar campaign. Plus, will Lockie Ferguson get hit into the Indus River like Srikkanth said?

> PBKS’ season also rests on which Chahal will turn up. If the Chahal of the first half of IPL 2024 turns up, they’re good. If the Chahal of the second half of IPL 2024 turns up, they’re doomed.

> All said, they are a better side than they were in the previous cycle and might contend for top four if all goes well. 

#6 - Royal Challengers Bengaluru

> A top-order of Kohli, Salt and Patidar, if all fire, is up there as the best in the league due to the different profiles they bring to the table.

> Livingstone, Tim David and Jitesh Sharma down the order provide enough firepower as well.

> That being said, outside Patidar, it’s a batting line-up that can get seriously stuck against spin. Livingstone and David struck at under 92 vs spin in IPL 2024. Jitesh, meanwhile, averaged 18. And oh, throw in Devdutt Padikkal, who had a SR of 72.2 vs spin last season. Kohli (58/137) was pretty good vs spin in IPL 2024 but it goes without saying that you can still trap him with good defensive spin bowling. 

> Non-existent spin attack. Suyash Sharma is the only ‘attacking’ spinner in the entire squad and the jury is very much still out on him.

> Decent pace-attack on paper, but…..Hazlewood is coming back from injury; Bhuvi averaged 48 and had an ER of 9.35 in IPL 2024; Yash Dayal is not bankable; Rasikh Dar is largely untested; Thushara might not feature in the XI. 

#5 - Delhi Capitals

> In T Natarajan, Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav, Delhi might just have one of the best bowling units this season, which works heavily in their favour.

> Unlike last year, the addition of Faf du Plessis (vice-captain) will give them much-needed calmness at the top of the order alongside Jake Fraser-McGurk. KL Rahul and Axar Patel in the middle-order gives them much-needed batting impetus. 

> Whether Ashutosh Sharma (SR 167.25) and Tristan Stubbs (SR 190.90) could keep up their IPL 2024 form is a big question. When you add Sameer Rizvi, DC’s lower order might not be as strong as their other suits.

> The biggest question mark is over DC’s pace bowling depth because they are heavily over-reliant on the duo of Starc and Natarajan. The latter is injury prone as well. 

> Whether Axar, in his first IPL captaincy stint, could work wonders in itself remains a big question. 

#4 - Mumbai Indians

> A top order of Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks / Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav is as good as it could get in a franchise competition. Jacks scored 230 runs in IPL 2024, striking at 175.6, including a 100 against GT. 

> Unlike last year, MI have covered all the bases in terms of bowling, with a right-arm pacer, a left-arm pacer, a back-of-a-length bowler, a left-arm spinner, an off-spinner and a wrist spinner. 

> Post IPL 2024, Hardik Pandya the all-rounder has been in great T20 form, striking at 160.6 and picking up 27 wickets, averaging 25.8. 

> MI’s biggest threat this year is the question mark over Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness, with there being a good chance that he might not play a lot of games. 

> Will Mitchell Santner make a difference to MI’s spin unit? Last year, they finished as second-worst in the league, with 18 wickets, with an ER of 9.3. 

#3 - Kolkata Knight Riders

> Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine could quite possibly be the most high-variance opening pair in IPL 2025, but the upside of that partnership is that they could even score 80/0 in the powerplay.

> Venkatesh Iyer, at No.3, is perhaps the most dependable batter in the competition, and the ceiling is quite high - considering he’s averaging close to 50, with a strike rate of 160.5 since IPL 2024 in T20s.

> The spin twins of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy definitely separate this spin unit from the rest of the competition. Chakaravarthy’s new-found edge could be their biggest X-factor, as the mystery spinner is in the form of his life. 

> Spencer Johnson has had an amazing last year, but the catch is that 21 of his 32 wickets have come in Australia, where he averages 14.8. In India, across five T20s, he averages 37.8, so putting all your eggs in that basket might be risky. 

> The other overseas seamer in the squad, Anirch Nortje, is coming off a long injury layoff so his fitness is a major concern as well. 

#2 - Chennai Super Kings

> CSK’s spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Noor Ahmad will start as one of the best spin units in the competition. With seven games at Chepauk, CSK could well exploit that to their advantage. 

> Only 15 wickets in the powerplay stage during IPL 2024? CSK have signed the right guy to fix that issue in Khaleel Ahmed. He was in the top five wicket-takers last season in the powerplay (8 wickets). He could significantly boost their powerplay stocks this time around.

> Sam Curran’s all-round display could be the missing puzzle for CSK,. The lack of a seam-bowling all-rounder cost CSK last season. 

> Ruturaj Gaikwad’s lacklustre form might come to haunt CSK, especially with him being the captain; he just had one notable performance in SMAT (97 off 48 against Services). At the IPL level, at least, the jury is still very much out on Gaikwad the skipper.

#1 - Sunrisers Hyderabad

> You thought SRH last year was a batting powerhouse? They have since then added Ishan Kishan and Abhinav Manohar, making that middle order much stronger than last year. 

> Mohammad Shami is a HUGE upgrade over Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with 28 wickets (since IPL 2023) in just 17 innings, averaging 18.6 at ER of 8. Bhuvi, meanwhile, picked up 27 wickets in 30 appearances during the same period, averaging 35.5 at an ER of nearly 9. 

> Their overseas contingent is tailor-made for T20s, as Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, and Pat Cummins can all be game-changers on any day. Cummins, as a leader, is an invaluable asset, making SRH firm favourites to win IPL 2025. 

> The addition of Kamindu Mendis makes SRH’s spin unit much stronger because he can bowl left-arm spin, right-arm off-spin, making him a valuable match-up bowler. He is also a handy batter to have during crisis situations.

> There’s a big question mark over Harshal Patel’s impact, and that is quite possibly one of their weaknesses. With an economy rate of 9.7, that could come to haunt them come the occasion.