IPL 2025: Beware batters, the bowlers are fighting back

“This might be the season the 300-run barrier is breached in the IPL”.

This was a constant refrain that we heard before IPL 2025 started. In fact, this was also the subject of on-air commentary discussion for a while, after the season began. And you can’t really fault anyone for doing that. On paper, cricket might be a battle between bat and ball, but of late, T20 cricket in particular has been a graveyard for the bowlers. Just look at how IPL 2024 panned out - as many as 1260 sixes were hit – the maximum in a single edition of the IPL, there were as many as forty-one 200-plus totals, 14 player centuries and the record for the highest innings total was broken four times, till it settled at SRH’s 287/3 against RCB.

And then, when the 18th season began, the Sunrisers Hyderabad, who once again boast one of the most power-packed batting line-ups in the league, smashed 286/6 in their first match . Surely, this was going to be another season where the bat would completely dominate the ball? Surely this will be the season we will see the leather being whacked off the cricket ball like never before?

But hold on a second. What is this new trend that we are suddenly witnessing? Are the bowlers really fighting back? Yes, they are. Nobody can say that the 2025 season is all about the batters. At least not just yet. And yes, there is still a long way to go, of course.

Bowlers fightback after blistering start to IPL 2025

But, let’s look at the trend that has emerged so far. From match number one to five, there were as many as six innings totals of 200-plus, in three matches, with three innings totals of over 240. But from matches six to fourteen – there wasn’t a single 200 or 200-plus innings total. Match number 15 saw KKR break that trend, with a score of 200/6 vs SRH and LSG posted 203/8 against MI in the 16th game, but overall, the statistics tell a very significant story. The bowlers are fighting back and run scoring is not as easy as it was when the season began. And if we look closer, the statistics will show that while in the first five matches of the league this season, the average powerplay score was 109.4 (both innings combined), that dipped to 108.6 in the timeframe from matches 6 to 10.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the run rate comparison between the first five matches this season compared to the six games after that (sample size of 11 games), showed a significant dip, from 10.7 to 9.07, or a fall of over 15%, with the number of fours and sixes being hit also, of course, coming down.

So, how exactly are the bowlers hitting back?

For one, teams have clearly learnt how to arm themselves with better strategies in the periods of the game, when the bowlers are most susceptible, like the powerplay overs, when only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Nothing breaks the back of a batting lineup like regular wickets and more and more teams are now going all out to try and take as many opposition wickets as possible in the first six powerplay overs. This in fact seems to have been a strategy from the beginning of the league this season, with the first 10 matches producing as many as 30 powerplay wickets (both innings combined). This might not be significantly different from what happened in the first 10 games of 2024, but has played a big role in determining overall run-rate and match progression.

Another telling fact is that both pacers and spinners are managing to strike regularly, so far this season. Till the end of match number 15, a look at the top 10 wicket-takers’ list this season showed that there were five pacers and five spinners on it. A perfect 50-50 split. Overall, this season so far, the spinners have been doing better than they did in the corresponding period in 2024. Overall, in 2024, after the full season, there were only two spinners in the top 10 wicket-takers’ list.

How much say the bowlers have in a particular contest is also dependent to a large extent on how the captain uses the bowlers at his disposal. A captain with an attacking mindset is always what a bowler looks and hopes for. A prime example of this is KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane, who decided not to hold back his two spin trump cards – Sunil Narine and Varun Ckaravarthy – when he had SRH on the mat in match number 15, which KKR won by 80 runs. The two spinners took 4 wickets between them, giving away only 52 runs in their combined eight overs.

Before you start thinking that the Eden pitch is meant to help the spinners, thanks to its dry nature, take a look at the scorecard of this match. The three pacers that Rahane used – Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana and Andre Russell – took 6 wickets between them. Another example of a track that had help for both kinds of bowlers, if they were skilful enough on the day to find it.

And that brings us neatly to the pitch debate.

There is no doubt that if you ran a spot poll, most cricket and IPL fans will say that they would like to see more fours and sixes, than wickets. A wicket always slows down the game – the dismissed batter has to walk off the field, if he calls for the DRS, there’s more time spent on that, the bowling team celebrates, substitute players rush onto the field with drinks, the next batter has to walk out, mark his guard and then the match is ready to resume. The host broadcaster also cuts to advertisements after the fall of every wicket. Psychologically, this entire process of waiting for the game to start again is a turn-off for most fans.

An event contest makes for more thrilling matches

While only the purists like to see an even contest between bat and ball and really enjoy matches where bowlers have a big say, most fans just like to see fours and sixes being hit, because that’s just more entertaining and thrilling to watch. But if you don’t give the bowlers something to work with, that will just end up killing the sport in the long run. Which is why it wasn’t surprising at all to hear Shardul Thakur say recently – “We just want a fair chance to bowl and get wickets.”

While the debate rages on over whether home teams should have complete say in what kind of pitch is prepared for a game or not, what is undeniable is that regardless of who decides what the final nature of the track is, both teams have bowlers in their ranks and all bowlers would like a track which gives them some assistance. There are of course some tracks in the country, like say the two pitches at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru, which are almost alike and will, almost always, favour the batters. But in the larger scheme of things, it’s always wise to prepare a pitch that has something in it for the bowlers – ideally both the pacers and the spinners. Only then will it be a truly fair contest.

I for one love an even contest between bat and ball. I would watch a low-scoring thriller any day than a team scoring 300. Let’s hope the pitches for the rest of the tournament are not changed in any way to turn them into complete batting paradises.

One thing that has remained the same for many seasons now is the trend of captains who win the toss choosing to chase. In the first 16 completed matches of this season, nine were won by the team batting second. It’s not a surprise then to see almost every captain who wins the toss, electing to field first. In the first 16 matches of IPL 2025, 15 captains who won the toss chose to field first. The only exception in this timeframe was SRH captain Pat Cummins, who chose to bat first against the Delhi Capitals. SRH eventually lost the match by 7 wickets.

That almost every captain winning the toss is choosing to field first is a clear sign perhaps of two things. The first is the obvious one - that they back their batters to chase down whatever score is posted, but the second one is that teams are also confident that their bowlers will be able to restrict the team batting first to a score that is not overtly daunting and therefore eminently chaseable. And going by what we have seen so far, that is a correct assessment. In the last six completed matches (from matches 10-15), the side chasing has won four times.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the number of 20-plus run overs also dipped when the first five matches of this season were compared to the next six. From 20 instances in the first timeframe it fell to just 1 in the second, which also incidentally had four overthrows. This too is a telling statistic. The bowlers are clearly not letting the batters rule the roost with complete impunity.

And that in itself is a fascinating tale. After all, isn’t T20 cricket supposed to be all one-way traffic in favour of the batters? Don’t the bowlers sign-up happily to be slaughtered on the field? Well, just ask the bowlers. After all, all they need and ask for to prove just how skilful and damaging they can be is just “a fair chance”.