New Delhi, Jun 01: Royal Challengers Bengaluru looked the part in another supremely successful campaign, Gujarat Titans maintained their remarkable play-off consistency while the underwhelming performance of IPL biggies Mumbai Indians and laggards Lucknow Super Giants set off the transition for the next season even before the curtains came down on the 2026 edition.
Anyone can beat anyone in T20 cricket and that reflected in the competitive nature of the league with play-off spots decided on the final day of the league stage.
RCB, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad had already qualified before the last day of the league stage but a resurgent Rajasthan Royals joined them as the fourth team in the play-offs with a win over Mumbai Indians on May 24. Royals knocked an up and down Punjab Kings out of the competition on the concluding day.
PTI looks back the how the season went by for the 10 teams in the world’s grandest T20 league (going by where they finished on points table).
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
The franchise, starved of an IPL title for 18 years, seems to have made winning a habit after their pathbreaking triumph last season. The think tank led by Andy Flower and Mo Bobat have put together a champion squad that is delivering handsomely on the field.
RCB would wish there is no mega auction in the foreseeable future with majority of the players in the squad taking their game to the next level season after season.
Their mindset this season was not defend their title, it was to aggressively chase for another trophy. They certainly walked the talk on that front.
Superstar Virat Kohli keeps reinventing his game even at this stage of his career to compete with “the super young”, Bhuvneshwar Kumar turned back the clock with a stellar presentation of “wobbly seam” according to none other than Sachin Tendulkar.
He got good support from Josh Hazlewood in the second half of the tournament, Krunal Pandya surprised with his variations on way to a fifth IPL title while pacer Rasikh Dar too came of age this season.
Devdutt Padikkal made clear changes to his conventional game to meet the demands of modern T20 while captain Rajat Patidar forced national selectors to take notice with his match winning performances.
Venkatesh Iyer was brought in as the impact player late in the tournament and he too delivered. RCB seemed like the most complete side of the competition and they surely played like one.
Gujarat Titans
If RCB have made winning a habit, Titans have emerged as one of the most consistent teams in its brief IPL history. They have made three finals in five attempts including a title on debut.
Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler kept piling on the runs at the top of the order. In case of their rare failure, the middle order doesn’t inspire the same confidence and that is one area Titans looking to shore up at the next auction.
Their bowling was arguably the best in the tournament, yet they could not cross the final hurdle. Experts feel they are a side which doesn’t have a Plan B in case their sublime top order and the new ball bowlers misfire. It seldom happened in the tournament but when it did, Titans could not find a way back.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Pat Cummins-led side did not do much do wrong this season after a slow start and were eventually outdone by the individual brilliance of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Jofra Archer in the Eliminator.
Among the big positives for them were the emergence of pacers like Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain.
After a disappointing last season, Nitish Reddy came up with timely contributions with both bat and ball.
The destructive top order including Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Ishan Kishan were again among the runs though the Australian did not have a season he probably wanted to considering his high standards.
Heinrich Klaasen at number four was the standout batter who enjoyed the best season of his long IPL career with 624 runs at a strike rate of 160.
SRH were good on flat tracks but not so good when they travelled outside Hyderabad.
Rajasthan Royals
By captain Riyan Parag’s own admission, Royals should have qualified much earlier than final day of the league stage. Their campaign was heavily dependant on 15-year-old wonder kid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who ended up being the leading run getter in his first full season with 776 runs at an astonishing strike rate of 237.30.
Archer was among the leading wicket takers of the tournament with 25 scalps, proving the breakthroughs regularly in his opening burst.
When both Sooryavanshi and Archer did not fire, the team struggled. Dhruv Jurel had a phenomenal season as a batter, Yash Raj Punja was their lead spinner ahead of Ravi Bishnoi while they missed the services of Sam Curran due to an injury.
Parag did well to make the play-off in his first season as captain but could not be consistent with the bat.
Off-field incidents too headlined their campaign with team manager Romi Bhinder fined Rs one lakh for using a cellphone in the dugout while Parag was caught vaping in the dressing room on national television.
Punjab Kings
The most dominant team of the IPL’s first half somehow messed up their play-off chances in the second half, losing six games in a row.
Their in form batting covered up for a wayward bowling attack in the first half before their performance dipped in all three departments including fielding.
Captain Shreyas Iyer had a decent season with the bat but the team will have to bolster its bowling at the auction. The up and down performance Arshdeep Singh also impacted the team adversely.
Delhi Capitals
For the second season in a row, Delhi Capitals failed to make the play-offs under Axar Patel.
It was another season where KL Rahul scored 500 plus runs which actually had little or no value in the final context.
The side did not have the batting firepower to push deeper into the tournament with too many one dimensional players in the line-up.
The bowling too did not have required potency, made worse by the absence of Mitchell Starc in the first half of the competition.
Their main spinner Kuldeep Yadav had a season to forget while the in-form Lungi Ngidi too could not do enough on his own.
DC are among the teams expected to change their leadership going forward.
Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR did well to finish seventh out of 10 teams after losing their first six games.
There is a strong possibility that Ajinkya Rahane has played his last season in the IPL.
The team struggled in all departments and is in need of an overhaul. Cameron Green also did not have a season to remember after being bought for a record 25.20 crore at the auction.
Chennai Super Kings:
The five time champions have not made the play-off since their title winning run in 2023.
The storied franchise led by Ruturaj Gaikwad needs a change of approach. First of all, there needs to be clarity over M S Dhoni so that they can move on from the glory days under the former India captain. He did not play a single game this season due to an injury but no one save Dhoni knows what’s in store next season.
Gaikwad has not flourished as a batter since being appointed captain in 2024. The batting is inexperienced with the likes of Urvil Patel yet to prove themselves.
With Hardik Pandya set to leave Mumbai Indians, CSK could consider his services in a leadership role. Alternatively, Sanju Samson is a ready captaincy choice if they decide to go in that direction.
Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians, a team full of India stars, disappointed the most this season. The quartet of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma had a season to forget. Rohit Sharma did alright at the top but his season was impacted by injury.
Throughout the season, there were murmurs of division within the leadership group with Hardik left to fight on his own. It remains to be seen who the team management and owner choose for the captaincy job next season. Bumrah, among the most accomplished in the squad, could take over.
Lucknow Super Giants
A revamp for next season is already in motion following the stepping down of captain Rishabh Pant after two forgettable years.
The batting flopped big time in the first half while the bowlers led by Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan and Prince Yadav impressed. Mohsin was the only bowler who sent down an unprecedented maiden over to Sooryavanshi.
In the second half, the bowling standards dropped while the batting could never fire in unison. Pant had another ordinary season, Nicholas Pooran was disappointing to say the least.
Justin Langer and Tom Moody along with Sanjiv Goenka will go on a captain shopping during mini-auction at the end of this year.
