Another season of the Indian Premier League begins on Saturday when the 10 teams are back for the IPL 2025 campaign, each looking to navigate the lengthy competition and lift the famous trophy in a couple of months.
The Kolkata Knight Riders won the title for the third time a year ago and they will be looking to be the first team since the Mumbai Indians in 2020 to make a successful defence of the title. The other nine sides have strengthened in a bid to stop them.
Recent Winners
2024 – Kolkata Knight Riders
2023 – Chennai Super Kings
2022 – Gujarat Titans
2021 – Chennai Super Kings
2020 – Mumbai Indians
2019 – Mumbai Indians
2018 – Chennai Super Kings
2017 – Mumbai Indians
2016 – Sunrisers Hyderabad
2015 – Mumbai Indians
The Format
The actual format of the competition remains the same as last season. Each team plays 14 regular season matches with everyone playing each of the other teams once and then they play five other teams a second time with those fixtures being determined on the previous rankings in the competition. The format for the play-offs has not changed though so only the top four make it through to the final stages. The top two get two bites of the cherry at making the final with the winner of the first against second meeting going straight through. Third face fourth in a straight knockout with the winner meeting the loser of the first game to determine the second team in the final. The rules are unchanged from last season except a bowling side can demand one ball change to counteract the dew that often impacts matches in this tournament.
The Favourites
The beaten finalists of a year ago are the favourites to win the tournament this time around in the Sunrisers Hyderabad. They fell short at the final hurdle last season but will begin the new campaign as a 9/2 shot to get the job done. The Sunrisers were always building from a good position in the auction with the reservations of the likes of Heinrich Klaasen, Pat Cummins, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma but the loss of Marco Jansen could be a big one. They have replaced him with the new ball with Mohammad Shami but whether his batting has been covered remains to be seen. I think they are worthy favourites but they will need injuries to be kind to key bowlers.
Mumbai Indians have won this title on a number of occasions and they are the 19/4 favourites to get their hands on the gold this season too. They reserved five superstars in Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma and if three of those have good campaigns then Mumbai are going to be strong, especially with additions such as Trent Boult, Will Jacks and Deepak Chahar while Mitchell Santner could be a good pick up with his ability to bowl tight overs on a home ground where scores over 200 are regular. You can never rule Mumbai out but at the price you would need Bumrah to go the course and distance.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the IPL (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
The Contenders
Chennai Super Kings are one of the most successful franchises in the history of the competition and they are the 5/1 third favourites to come out on top this season but I have the same question over them that I have had for the last few campaigns in that are they suddenly going to age? If they do then that isn’t good but if not then one of the reasons why they are so successful is because they are one of few sides who recruit purely for their own conditions but also because they don’t change too much behind the scenes. Nathan Ellis looks a good addition for when they go away from Chepauk but the Super Kings look a little skinny to me.
The defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders are 9/1 to make a successful defence of their title. The same question kind of applies to the Knight Riders in that will they age at the same time. There is a bit of a younger core at this team but they still need Sunil Narine and Andre Russell to contribute to be at their best and they are certainly getting no younger. If they can keep on going then they have the tools to make a successful defence of the title if their bowlers can remain fit.
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans come next in the betting at 10/1. Bangalore just can’t seem to crack the code of winning this tournament and if Josh Hazlewood got injured there could be some crazy scores against them at the Chinnaswamy while Gujarat are a side who for me haven’t developed with improvement in the last couple of auctions. Jos Buttler is a good addition for them but they lack batting depth and bowling mite for my liking.
Outright Betting
This is always a tricky market to bet on because all of the squads are loaded with quality and there isn’t much between them but I maintain with this Impact Player rule that you have to load up with all-rounders because in that second innings you effectively bat with eight genuine batters if you have a batting all-rounder and seven bowlers if you have a bowling one so I’m very much looking through the all-rounder list in the tournament.
That leads me to thinking that Punjab Kings are the ones to be on this year. They have a pair of likely solid openers whose job will just be to set the innings up for the big hitters to come and a side that even if they bowl first can have Glenn Maxwell in as a sixth bowler and someone like Harpreet Brar can come in while batting wise they could have Marco Jansen down at nine. The likes of Maxwell, Stoinis, Yuzvendra Chahal, Josh Inglis and Shreyas Iyer can all win matches on their own and Punjab look overpriced to me.
Tips
Back Punjab Kings to win IPL 2025 (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 12.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Be the first to comment on "IPL 2025 – Season Outright Tips and Betting Preview"