We will have a look at who is leading the race for the individual awards this season and which players are having the most impact on the pitch in the ongoing IPL season, benefiting their teams in the longer run:
Players and Teams ruling the roost in IPL 2025
#1 Race for the Playoffs: 7 Teams still in the mix; RCB and GT favorites to finish in Top 2
Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Rajasthan Royals exited the race to the playoffs quite early, allowing the other seven teams to have a neck-to-neck battle, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans slight favorites to finish in the Top 2.
GT and RCB have raced ahead of the other sides, pocketing 16 points each as both GT and RCB have won eight matches each and lost on three occasions. The Royal Challengers, led by their new skipper Rajat Patidar, have lost all three home matches on their home ground and have the chance to become the first team to win all seven away matches in the league phase of IPL.
Punjab Kings is in third place with seven wins, three defeats, and one No Result as rain spoiled their party at the Eden Gardens after the Shreyas Iyer-led side had scored 200+ runs in the first innings.
Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals have 14 and 13 points, respectively and would be fighting it out for the last playoff place when they meet on May 21. Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants remain outside contenders and can sneak in if they win their remaining matches.
#2 Orange Cap keeps changing hands almost every day
The Orange Cap should be renamed the Orange Baton after analyzing the 2025 season of the cash-rich league as the orange cap has continuously shifted between Nicholas Pooran, Sai Sudharsan, Virat Kohli, and Suryakumar Yadav as the four players have kept their sides in the hunt of the playoffs at the end of first week of May.
Currently, the first and fifth position in the Orange Cap race are spearated by a mere 10 runs as Suryakumar Yadav, the current holder of the coveted award has 510 runs in 12 innings at an average of 63.75 and a strike rate of 170.56, making him the only player to be in Top 5 lists of highest run-getters and highest strike-rates (minimum 100 runs).
In the second and third place are Sai Sudharsan and GT skipper Shubman Gill with 509 runs and 508 runs respectively at strike rates of 150+. The GT opening pair have recorded three century partnerships in the ongoing season and has been given a huge helping hand by Jos Buttler, who has scored 500 runs at an average of 71.43 and a strike rate of 163.93 and takes the fifth place on the list.
RCB stalwart Virat Kohli is in fourth place with 505 runs at a strike rate of 143.46 as the chase-master has played the anchoring role for the Bengaluru-based franchise, scoring seven half-centuries in seven out of eight wins for his beloved franchise.
#3 Prasidh Krishna takes a slight lead in the Purple Cap Race
Unlike the Orange Cap, which shifts hands every second day, Prasidh Krishna has had the Purple Cap for a few days as the Bengaluru-born fast bowler has struck 20 wickets in 11 matches, leading the GT bowling attack in the absence of Kagiso Rabada.
Noor Ahmad has also raced to 20 wickets in 12 matches after taking 4 wickets in the narrow 2-wicket win against KKR, but the Afghan spinner has only two matches left in the competition, which hurts his chances of bagging the individual accolade.
Josh Hazlewood is in third place with 18 wickets in 10 matches, and the Australian fast bowler would be hoping to shake off his injury ahead of RCB’s next match. Trent Boult and Varun Chakravarthy have 18 and 17 wickets in 12 matches, respectively, while Arshdeep Singh and Vaibhav Arora have 16 wickets each in 11 matches.
#4 The tale of two home grounds for three franchises
While seven franchises have decided to remain loyal to their home ground and the bustling crowds at their preferred venues, three franchises from the northern and western parts of the country have taken a different route.
Delhi Capitals started the season by playing two of their home fixtures in Vizag as the city in Andhra Pradesh played host to two of DC’s games. Guwahati has also played host to two matches this season as Rajasthan Royals started out their season in the eastern part of the country in a bid to extend the cricketing action to more states, with local boy Riyan Parag acting as the stand-in skipper for RR during that period.
Punjab Kings had planned to play three of their matches in Dharamsala and four in Mullanpur, but two of their three fixtures scheduled at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala will be played elsewhere due to the ongoing tensions at the India-Pakistan border.
#5 Sunil Narine leads the way for Most Valuable Player Award
The 2024 IPL Most Valuable Player Award winner Sunil Narine once again leads the way in the Most Valuable Player Award race as the KKR all-rounder has 237.5 points courtesy of 215 runs at a strike rate of 168 and 10 wickets while keeping his economy rate at 7.5. Narine has proven to be the complete package as he regularly bowls 4 overs and opens the innings as well.
Suryakumar takes the second position with 228 points courtesy of 510 runs, which include 51 fours and 26 maximums, while Nicholas Pooran takes the third position with 227 points collected via 34 fours and 34 maximums, helping him cross the 400-run mark.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler take the fourth and fifth positions courtesy of their good show with the bat and in the field. Except Sudharsan and Gill, Parag, Ravindra Jadeja, and Prabhsimran Singh complete the Top 10 List of Most Valuable Players in IPL 2025.
#6 Sai, Priyansh, and Noor to battle it out for the Emerging Player of the Season Award
The ongoing IPL season has all been about younger players breaking through the barricades as debutants like 17-year old Ayush Mhatre, Vipraj Nigam, Digvesh Rathi, Priyansh Arya, and 14-year old Vaibhav Suryavanshi have made a mark courtesy of their splendid shows.
Following in the steps of a long list of uncapped centurions for Punjab Kings, Arya scored a century of 39 balls and has scored 347 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 192.77 in total challenging the likes of Sudharsan and Noor for the coveted award.
While Sai and Noor are not debutants, they are eligible for the award and are the front-runners along with the likes of Harshit Rana and Naman Dhir.
*All Stats as of 15th May (After the conclusion of KKR vs CSK)
