The Indian Premier League for 2025 rocks into action this weekend as Ajinkya Rahane and his Kolkata Knight Riders renew hostilities with their old rivals, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who feature plenty of batting power in Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell and Liam Livingstone.
The T20 competition’s 18th season promises to be as action-packed and thrilling as ever and our first-class all-rounder Peter Sharland has put together his favourite bets ahead of the opening ball…
Indian Premier League Best Bets
Winner – Sunrisers Hyderbad
Top Runscorer – Shreyas Iyer
Top Wicket Taker – Varun Chakaravarthy
FIRST MATCH: Saturday, 22nd March, 10am
FINAL: Sunday, 25th May, 3pm
TV: Sky Sports Cricket
The glitz, the glamour and the mammoth sixes – yes, it’s that time of the year, the IPL is back for 2025! Love it or hate it (is this India’s answer to Marmite?) the IPL is always fascinating viewing as the best in the world come together for a two-month tournament.
Last year’s competition was won by the Kolkata Knight Riders as they took their first title in ten years, defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. Both teams will be looking to get back to the showpiece event for a second successive year.
However, one thing throwing a spanner in the works was the mega-auction last winter, which resulted in a huge shake-up of the squads and has changed the picture for more than a few teams. We’ll be back with you later in the week to focus on the first few games specifically but for now read on to find out what we’re tipping when it comes to the overall tournament.
WINNER – Sunrisers Hyderabad
At the shortest odds we have a group of three teams all level and none of them are the Knight Riders. The first are the Mumbai Indians, who finished bottom last year. The bookies are banking on a return to form for the big names as well as a couple of shrewd additions such as Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks and Ryan Rickleton. Ultimately Mumbai’s success comes down to two key questions. Is Jasprit Bumrah fit? And can they keep a lid on the off-field circus? If those two questions yield positive results Mumbai will be hard to bet against.
Our tip among the favourites though is another in that group, Sunrisers Hyderabad. Their batting line-up is like no other and it feels as if all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is ready (pun absolutely intentional) to become a legitimate option in both phases of the game. Plus unlike Mumbai they are not worried about the fitness of their star bowlers. Captain Pat Cummins obviously missed the Champions Trophy but new signing Mohammed Shami looked back to his best after missing the Australia series.
The other two teams to talk about here are the Chennai Super Kings, the third favourites, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. For the former they will of course prepare intense spinning wickets but the question remains; will they win enough games away from The Chepauk and can their approach keep up with the batting explosion we’ve seen in the IPL? For the latter, talisman Virat Kohli comes into the tournament in fantastic form (more on him later) and some of the additions they have made are very exciting, but is it enough? We like both of those teams to win a lot of games, but ultimately not enough to come out as winners.
You want a wildcard? Let’s talk about the Punjab Kings, who finished second from bottom in last year’s tournament, winning just five games. They blew everything up at the auction and went big to sign Shreyas Iyer as their new captain, you might know him from his recent impressive form in the white-ball series against England and in the 2025 Champions Trophy. Josh Inglis and Azmatullah Omarzi were not high-profile pick-ups at the time but both come into the tournament in fine form, plus they signed last year’s leading wicket-taker Harshal Patel. They are betting a lot on players like Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis to hit their heights but for the first time in a while you can look at Punjab and envision them to make a run.
Top runscorer – Shreyas Iyer
Kohli was magnificent last year, scoring 158 runs more than the next highest scorer, winning his second Orange Cap award. He is currently joint-favourite to win the title this year along with Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill. Of the two we prefer Kohli because the pitches at RCB should suit him better and it does feel as if, while he is struggling with the red ball, he is at a real apex in terms of his white-ball game and when Kohli is at an apex in Indian conditions there are few better.
Aside from those two at the top we already like the previously mentioned Shreyas Iyer to have a big year, he’s solidly in the middle of the pack in terms of the odds and could be excellent value. Iyer is one of those players who seems to keep getting better with age and he seems at total peace with where his game is at. At the same odds you can also get Abhishek Sharma, one of the breakout stars of last season. Sharma was magnificent in the recent T20I series against England and the hope will be that will be more consistent this year to propel himself up the runs leaderboard.
In terms of long-shots we like both Rachin Ravindra at 20/1 and Tristan Stubbs at 25/1. Ravindra was the top-scorer in the Champions Trophy and is clearly in the ascendancy. His debut IPL was difficult but he will have learned a lot and Chennai sticking with him shows that they know what they’ve got. With Harry Brook out of the IPL Stubbs is now even more important for the Delhi Capitals and he has shown the signs of growth you’d want from a young player and this could be his breakout year.
Top Wicket taker – Varun Chakaravarthy
As we mentioned last year Harshal Patel was the winner of the Purple Cap with 24 wickets, narrowly edging out Varun Chakaravarthy and Bumrah, who finished with 21 and 20 wickets respectively. Bumrah is the current betting favourite but we cannot advocate betting for him right now given the uncertainty around his fitness. But we do really like Chakaravarthy who is currently third in the betting along with a host of other players. He was excellent against England prior to the Champions Trophy just as good during the tournament, finishing as the second-highest wicket-taker. His rise to becoming one of the best spinners in the world is an incredible story and he’s our top pick.
We also really like Shami to have a bounce back season, fingers crossed it seems as if the worst of his injuries are behind him and his fitness holds up. Although he’s getting up there in terms of age the Champions Trophy proved that there are still few better proponents of the white ball and don’t forget the impact of his batting line-up in Hyderabad. If the Sunrisers bat first they’ll put pressure on their opponents which in turn opens the door for a seasoned wicket-taker like Shami.
Our long shot here is Santner, it might seem weird to pick someone who has moved away from the spin-friendly conditions of Chennai but he is another who just seems to be at the top of his game at the moment.Plus moving out of the shadow of Ravi Jadeja can only be a good thing, he should see far more playing time in Mumbai.
Indian Premier League 2025
Winner – Sunrisers Hyderbad
Top Runscorer – Shreyas Iyer
Top Wicket Taker – Varun Chakaravarthy
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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