Team of the Tournament: Best Playing XI of IPL 2025

Who are the contenders for the team of the tournament?

Including an impact player, there are 12 spots in the team of the tournament for IPL 2025. However, these coveted 12 spots are contested by many players from different teams. A closer look at the players will allow us to judge them on the basis of their performance in specific positions. 

Opening batters

There are at least five players who make a strong case for opening the innings. Among them, Sai Sudharsan has sealed one of the spots. The left-handed batter topped the Orange Cap list and scored 759 runs in 15 innings. 

Apart from the GT batter, the other contenders include his partner, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Mitchell Marsh. Among these six players, only one would make the team of the tournament. Given that there is already a left-handed batter opening the innings, it makes sense to have him partner up with a right-hander. Priyansh and Jaiswal, in spite of their incredible performances for their respective teams, bow out of contention. 

Middle-order

Among the batters at numbers 3, 4, and 5, two of the spots automatically fill themselves. Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer had incredible campaigns and played a huge role in their teams reaching the playoffs and eventually the finals/winning the title. 

At number five, there are a few players who are in contention. Nicholas Pooran, albeit batting at number three for the better part of the campaign, could be a possible batter at three down, given his high strike rate throughout the season. Apart from the Trinidadian cricketer, the other options include Jitesh Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, and Nehal Wadhera. 

Lower middle-order

At 6, 7, and 8, strike rate and ability to finish innings are the top priorities for selecting batters. Among these three, there needs to be at least two bowling options as well. Given the nature of T20 cricket in the last couple of years, it is necessary to go into any match with at least six bowling options. Given how none of the contenders from the top five bowled in IPL 2025, there have to be two bowling options among these three. 

Thanks to some brilliant batting in the top order in almost every team, there was a paucity among contenders in the lower-middle order. Most of the teams employed overseas specialist batters. 

Bowling unit

There are four bowling spots, including the impact sub. Prasidh Krishna, Noor Ahmad, Josh Hazlewood, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Trent Boult, and Digvesh Rathi were among the best bowlers in the season. Among these bowlers, some of them were attacking bowlers for their teams, while others were used to control the rate of scoring. 

Boult, for instance, in spite of being more expensive than usual, was among the top wicket takers in the season. Prasidh, Noor, and Hazlewood not only were among the Purple Cap list but also picked up wickets whenever their teams were in trouble. 

Team of the tournament in IPL 2025

The team of the tournament in IPL features some of the best players from India and other countries. These players lit up the tournament with their incredible performances. Batters like Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav played huge roles in their teams reaching the playoffs. Among the bowlers, Prasidh Krishna and Noor Ahmad were instrumental to their team’s success. While the right-arm pacer had a breakout season, the Afghan spinner was a lone warrior in an otherwise disappointing CSK bowling lineup.

Sai Sudharsan

Sai Sudharsan was one of the best batters in the tournament. The left-handed batter not only raked up 759 runs in 15 games but also played at a strike rate of more than 150. What made his campaign stand out among the other batters was his consistency while playing risk-free shots. 

The 23-year-old played some great innings against tough bowling lineups to make sure that the Gujarat Titans stayed at the top of the points table for the majority of the season. However, in the last two games of the league stage, Sudharsan failed, and it turned out to be pretty fatal for his team as they slipped to number three and had to play the Eliminator. Even in the playoffs, Sudharsan stood tall in a huge chase against the Mumbai Indians but did not receive an ample amount of support from the rest of his teammates, which saw GT crash out of the competition.

He ended the season with 759 runs to his name at an average of 54.21. Sudharsan struck the most number of fours in the season, which helped him maintain a healthy strike rate and even the Orange Cap on his head despite his team not making past the Eliminator.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli was one of the finest players this season, like he has been in the past couple of years consistently. Kohli is the embodiment of consistency in the IPL, and it is evident with the number of records he holds in the history of the tournament. In the 18th season, the right-handed batter was finally part of an RCB unit where there were multiple other match-winners. 

Throughout the season, Kohli shut his doubters down over and over again as he batted with a strike rate of close to 150. While batting at a quicker pace than most of his career, the former RCB batter maintained his stellar record in chases. He scored a fifty in five of the six times his team chased down a total. In the only match he did not score a half-century, RCB were in pursuit of a meagre target of only 102 runs in Qualifier 1. Among these games, the 36-year-old remained not out till the end on three occasions to seal the win for his team.

Kohli scored 614 runs prior to the final at a healthy average of 55.81. The right-hander was among the top run scorers, like he has been all these years and played his fourth final in IPL history. He had a strike rate of 146.53 while smashing 63 fours and 19 sixes.

Suryakumar Yadav

It was records galore for Suryakumar Yadav this season every time he took the bat in hand for the Mumbai Indians. While he only won a solitary player of the match award during the season, he was unarguably the best player for the five-time champions in IPL 2025. The right-hander batted in the tournament at numbers three and four in most innings. He went past Temba Bavuma and became the first player to score 25+ runs 14 times in a row in T20s. It was a record that he extended to 16 and went past the mark every time this season for MI.

Given his consistency, Surya was at the forefront of the MI unit at different stages of their campaign. When the five-time champions had a poor start to the campaign, he was the consistent run-scorer for his team. When the five-time champions made a strong comeback in the season, it was on the back of some incredible performances from Suryakumar. 

He ended IPL 2025 as the second-highest run-getter and became the first player to score more than 700 runs in a season despite not opening the innings. In the process, the right-handed batter also broke AB de Villiers’ record of scoring the most runs in an IPL season as a non-opening batter. The 34-year-old scored 717 runs at an average of 65.18 (the highest of the season) while striking at a rate of 167.91.

Shreyas Iyer (C)

Shreyas Iyer created history as the skipper of the Punjab Kings as he became the first captain to reach the final leading three different sides in the IPL. As a batter, there was not a single player in the league who was better than him at number 3/4. He gave up his favoured number three batting position for Josh Inglis, and it turned out to be a stroke of genius on two occasions in big games against the Mumbai Indians. 

Iyer’s only disappointment with the bat in hand was that he could not replicate his form at Mullanpur in front of the passionate home crowd. In all other venues that the Punjab Kings travelled it was Iyer, more often than not, who played a captain’s innings. What made this season even more special was that it came when he was the second-most expensive player in the history of the IPL. He was bought by the PBKS for ₹26.75 crores.

One of the best knocks from the PBKS skipper came during the second Qualifier against the Mumbai Indians. He scored 87 runs in only 41 balls, striking at a rate of more than 200 against one of the best bowling lineups of the tournament under the immense pressure of a knockout. 

Iyer scored 603 runs in 16 innings before the final. He had an average of 54.81, but it was his strike rate of 175.8 that made the most impact. No other batter scored more runs than he at a better strike rate. In fact, only Nicholas Pooran scored more than 500 runs at a better strike rate. 

Jitesh Sharma (wk)

Jitesh Sharma recorded the most dismissals in the season as he displayed exceptional skills both behind the stumps as well as in front of them. He was instrumental in some of the wins for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Jitesh not only led the team in a couple of games but was also the leading man when it came to taking reviews. Rajat Patidar, as the skipper, would go to him for advice on taking reviews, and more often than not, Jitesh would persuade the captain to make the right decision.

As batter, Jitesh played multiple influential cameos but none greater than his knock against the Lucknow Super Giants in the last game of the league stage. He came to the crease at a tumultuous time when Virat Kohli had been dismissed. The wicketkeeper batter ended up scoring 85 runs in only 33 balls to record the third-highest chase in the history of the IPL. 

Jitesh scored 237 runs in 10 innings, averaging close to 40 at a strike rate of 171.37. As a keeper, he recorded 19 dismissals, including a solitary stumping. The right-handed batter might not have scored a lot of runs, but played multiple handy knocks to win games for the Royal Challengers. 

Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya continued to be the joint that holds the batting and bowling units of the team together. The MI skipper was down on his haunches as his team was eliminated in the second Qualifier. However, at different stages in IPL 2025, Hardik played a couple of vital knocks and bowled some great spells. 

One of his best knocks came at the Wankhede Stadium against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. While the Mumbai Indians eventually went on to lose that game, Pandya’s knock of 42 runs off 15 balls helped the five-time champions to stay in the chase after a horrendous start by the top four of MI. He scored 224 runs at an average of 24.88, striking at a rate of more than 160.

With the ball in hand, the right-arm pacer picked up 14 wickets, including a five-wicket haul at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. He bowled another handy spell at the Narendra Modi Stadium earlier in the league stage. However, in each of these games, MI went out to lose the games which meant these performances were in vain. 

Naman Dhir

Naman Dhir was one of the finds of this tournament for the Mumbai Indians. While most of the youngsters batted in the top order, Dhir batted in the lower middle order and played some handy knocks whenever an opportunity presented itself. 

One of the best parts about his game was his fielding. The 25-year-old saved multiple runs in each game and was like a livewire in the field. Even with some of his catches, Dhir ran pretty hard to make them look easy.

With the bat in hand, he scored 252 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 182.60. He even bowled four overs during the season and remained pretty economical, conceding only 21 runs. 

Sunil Narine

Sunil Narine did not have the same impact as he did last year with the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, it did not stop the three-time MVP winner from making a huge impact in the season. He once again opened the innings for the Knight Riders but failed to create a similar sort of impact. But with the ball in hand, the spinner was at his usual best and contained runs in a bowling attack that was pretty toothless.

Narine, albeit opening the innings, is known for his wild hoicks, which can come in handy if a need arises at number eight. He can be used as a floater in the batting order as well, given his strength against spin bowling. The left-hander scored 246 runs, opening the innings at 170.83.

With the ball in hand, Narine could not attack in terms of wickets as the bowlers from the opposite end did not create much pressure. This meant that the batters did not take many risks against him. In 12 games, the right-arm spinner took 12 wickets but maintained a great economy rate of 7.80 runs per over. 

Noor Ahmad

Noor Ahmad had a breakout season with the Chennai Super Kings. The Afghan leg spinner was bought for ₹10 crores. While everyone expected him to be great at the Chidambaram Stadium, no one would have believed at the start of the season that he would pick up the most wickets by a spinner in this season.

The 20-year-old picked up 24 wickets in the season in 14 games. It was seldom that CSK managed to attack the opposition batters without Noor’s help. He was not only their premier bowler in the middle-overs to pick wickets, but also contained the flow of runs in many clashes. 

In the four games that the men in yellow won, Noor picked up 11 wickets. In these clashes, the Afghan spinner conceded only 83 runs in 12 overs at an economy of less than seven runs per over.

Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah proved to be one of the best bowlers of the season, even though he missed out on the first four games of the season. The right-arm pacer came back from his back surgery like he never left. He was at his best in nearly all the games. 

Bumrah picked up 18 wickets in 12 games, and if you are wondering whether his wicket tally is low, then his economy numbers will tell you the reason. Among those who bowled more than five overs, no player, barring Jasprit, had an economy of less than seven runs per over. The pacer bowled 47 overs while going at a rate of only 6.67 runs per over. He was a dangerous bowler throughout the tournament, and the batters would rather play him out than get dismissed by him.

Prasidh Krishna

Prasidh Krishna, after years of toiling hard in the Indian Premier League, finally reaped some rewards. The right-arm pacer stuck to a test bowling length throughout the season and tormented the batters in the middle-overs. If not for some loss of form in the latter stages of the tournament, Krishna would have ended up with more wickets than his tally of 25.

At the start of the season, the tall pacer was not only an effective wicket-taker but also did not concede many runs. It was his performances that allowed the Gujarat Titans to take a healthy lead in the season in the IPL points table. The right-arm pacer struggled to maintain any impact in the last three games, and it eventually resulted in the Titans losing these clashes. 

He had an economy of 8.27 runs per over in 15 games while averaging less than 20. Among pacers with at least 15 wickets, only Bumrah had a better economy and average than Prasidh.

Josh Hazlewood

Josh Hazlewood’s impact in the 18th season of the Indian Premier League can be studied by taking a look at how RCB performed in the games where the Aussie pacer was not in the playing XI. The right-arm pacer missed two games after the resumption of the tournament following a one-week suspension. In those two games, the Royal Challengers conceded 231 and 227 runs. 

Like Prasidh, Hazlewood bowled at test match lengths. Even though the two formats are highly different from each other, the 34-year-old found a great deal of success. He picked up 21 wickets before the final in 11 innings. What set him apart from others was his strike rate. He took a wicket on almost every 11th ball. Among bowlers with at least 12 wickets, Hazlewood had the best bowling strike rate. 

When the right-arm pacer played, the RCB bowling unit as a whole got much better. His presence in the field helped the likes of Yash Dayal to perform much better. When there were speculations about Hazlewood not returning to IPL 2025, there was a sense of fear among the RCB fans. Right when he showed up, the Royal Challengers bowled out the Punjab Kings for a score of only 101 runs in Qualifier 1.