IPL 2025 playoff race | Who will be the last four standing?

Predicting IPL top-four contenders based on history, squad strength, and strategic analysis for the upcoming season.

Predicting favourites is tough business. It is an exercise that at once feels very rational and logical but also instinctive and guesswork-heavy. In a competition like the IPL, it is all the more difficult, for squads are chopped and changed every three years.

Yet, looking back at 17 years of history, one can claim to have some foreknowledge about how things may eventually pan out. We know how certain captains operate, a few coaches strategise and a lot of pitches behave.

With the help of past information, a dose of intuitive intelligence and a big prayer, here is an attempt to zero-in on a potential top-four, not necessarily in that order.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: SRH’s ultra-aggressive batting last year took the IPL by storm and played a big role in the side reaching the final. For the 2025 edition, it has retained the players who helped achieve that — Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy — and has added the dashing Ishan Kishan. It has reshuffled the bowling pack but by no means does it appear inadequate, for it has brought in the likes of Mohammed Shami. In Pat Cummins, there is a calm head at the top, which in the breakneck world of T20 cricket can often be the difference between victory and defeat.

Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR doesn’t have Shreyas Iyer, its title-winning captain from 2024. It doesn’t have Mitchell Starc, the bowler who spelled doom for opponents in the playoffs. And it doesn’t have mentor Gautam Gambhir and his band of merry men. But it has always been a team with a near-perfect mix of novelty and time-testedness. If appointing Ajinkya Rahane as the captain was a patented left-field move, retaining Andre Russell, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, and welcoming back Venkatesh Iyer for a handsome price (₹23.75 crore) was a pointer towards continuity. Another run to the business end is very much in the realm of possibility.

Delhi Capitals: On paper, DC has a superb set of players. But as the adage in elite sport goes, two plus two rarely equals four. Yet, DC’s is a squad that is brimming with promise and feels so full of possibilities. If it doesn’t finish among the four best teams, it will be mighty disappointing. Its foreign contingent is swashbuckling, for it comprises Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Tristan Stubbs and Mitchell Starc. The homegrown talent is tried and tested with the likes of K.L. Rahul, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar and Mohit Sharma. The spin combination of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav is something most sides will kill to have. So what’s not to like?

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: For as long as one can remember, RCB has been the butt of everyone’s jokes. Despite the overarching presence of Virat Kohli, it has never won the IPL and has lost thrice in the final. But this season, there is genuine belief that it has built an outfit that is capable enough. Its primary abode, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, offers no discernible home advantage, for it is small, loved by every batter in the country and sends most bowlers – including those from RCB – on leather hunts. Yet, for the upcoming campaign, it feels like RCB has the requisite power-hitting capability and astute bowlers to counter largely unfriendly conditions. Ee sala cup….