IPL playoffs line up secured, but which team will come out strongest?

So with just a handful of group games to go, the Indian Premier League cream has risen to the top.

With Gujarat Titans, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and Punjab Kings streaking away, it was down to the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals game to decide the fourth playoff entrant, and the Indians left us in no doubt as to who is the better side.

It was a great example of the IPL being a marathon, not a sprint.

The Capitals burst out of the blocks quicker than anyone else, won their first four games, and had people asking whether they had finally found a balanced squad that could challenge for the title.

But then the lungs started to burn, and virtually the whole team, barring KL Rahul and Mitchell Starc, began to run out of steam.

We’ve seen this many times before in the IPL – a team that isn’t used to winning but looks great initially before you scratch beneath the surface and realise there isn’t as much substance as there seems to be.

They are the first side ever to win their first four games and not make the playoffs.

Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans on the up

The Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, are a franchise that knows its way around the IPL obstacle course better than most.

In the glory days, they were renowned as a side that took a while to get going but slowly built up a head of steam and peaked at the back end before stealing the trophy away from someone else.

This squad might not be quite as good as the ones that took the title five times between 2013 and 2020, but ominously for the rest, they are showing the same qualities of getting on a roll at the perfect time.

It’s seven wins in eight now, and the bowling unit is looking irresistibly good. They will miss Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks when they leave after the group stage – and the likes of Jonny Bairstow could play a big role – but the bowling won’t be affected, and for this reason, they could surprise the top three and go all the way.

Jasprit Bumrah looks close to the top of his game, Trent Boult has added real cutting edge, and Karn Sharma has shown signs of being able to fill their spin void.

Suryakumar Yadav continues to perform, and even the fading force Rohit Sharma has hit three fifties in his last six innings.

But it’s the strength of the bowling attack that makes them an intimidating side to play, and you could say the same about Gujarat.

Not many squads would’ve been able to cope without Kagiso Rabada for most of the season or a badly out-of-form Rashid Khan, but the Titans have brushed off these twin setbacks with extreme nonchalance.

The 2022 champions do rely heavily on Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill, and Jos Buttler to score their runs, and Buttler is leaving before the playoffs, but top-heavy teams have gone all the way in the IPL before.

RCB will hope they can ride a Virat Kohli-inspired wave of emotion after his Test retirement, but not having any more games in Bangalore means they won’t be able to harness that in the way they would’ve liked to.

And while nothing has been confirmed, I don’t expect Josh Hazlewood to return for them. It’s been really pleasing to see Punjab’s success almost entirely driven by local players – their top five run scorers are all Indian, and the bowling has been led by Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal.

For that reason, they may not miss the overseas players who have decided not to come back to India after the break.

Both RCB and the Kings, though, are playing under the added pressure of having never lifted the trophy, and this can weigh heavily – just ask Delhi.

As ever, it will come down to who handles the pressure when it counts in the playoffs, and I just have an inkling that it might be Gujarat or Mumbai getting their hands on the trophy.

The IPL’s 14-year-old wonderkid

A word on the incredible Vaibhav Suryavanshi to finish.

The most talked about teenager in world cricket has shown recently in a couple of cameos that his record-breaking hundred was no flash in the pan.

He looks to have everything to be a T20 gun and someone who will be an excitement machine. But a few people have been asking me if he will play Test cricket soon.

While he has already played five first-class matches, which is an incredible achievement in itself for a 14-year-old, you can see from the way he grips the bat and his backlift that his game is very much tailored to the shorter formats and scoring as quickly as possible.

I don’t think I’ve seen him play a defensive shot once. So let’s not put any more pressure on his shoulders and start pushing him forward for the Indian Test squad.

His game needs to develop significantly for that to even be a serious consideration. For the time being, let’s just all sit back and enjoy him hitting grown men into the stands with the power and calmness of a seasoned pro – we should be seeing plenty of it over the next few years.

Watch every match from the 2025 IPL live on Sky Sports Cricket, up to and including the final on Sunday May 25.