IPL 2025: Three biggest disappointments of season 18
by Devesh Jaganath | by Cydias Aujard
Rishabh Pant - Lucknow Super Giants
The Lucknow Super Giants signalled their intentions of being serious contenders heading into the 2025 Indian Premier League by breaking the bank at the IPL mega auction, shelling out ₹27 crore to bring in Rishabh Pant as their skipper.
His pricetag saw him become the most expensive player in the history of the IPL, surpassing the ₹26.75 crore Kolkata Knight Riders spent on Shreyas Iyer, who led them to the title in the 2024 edition of the competition and confirmed our cricket prediction for season 17.
Pant made a disastrous start to the competition, dismissed for a duck in his opening match against the Delhi Capitals. By the end of LSG’s fourth match against Mumbai Indians, Pant had scored 19 runs, posting scores of 0, 15, 2 and 2.
The wicket-keeper batsman managed to salvage some pride by scoring an unbeaten 118 in his final match of the competition, but the Super Giants were already eliminated by that point. Pant ended the campaign with 269 runs and an average of 24.45 - his worst ever in the IPL.
Venkatesh Iyer - Kolkata Knight Riders
After a dominant run to the title in 2024, the Kolkata Knight Riders raised several eyebrows at the IPL auction when they released Shreyas Iyer. However, KKR seemed to have seen an opportunity in Venkatesh Iyer and went all in on him to the tune of ₹23.75 crore.
Barring a 60-run knock in his third innings, Iyer made almost no impact for KKR this year, and alarm bells began blaring midway through the competition when he scored 14 runs off 19 balls against the Gujarat Titans at Eden Gardens, marking his slowest T20 innings ever.
The all-rounder’s form nosedived even further during the second half of the IPL, and by the end of the competition, KKR failed to even reach the Playoffs, while Iyer ended the campaign with 142 runs in 11 matches, averaging a mere 20.29.
Ravichandran Ashwin - Chennai Super Kings
Several players could have made our list of the biggest disappointments of the 2025 IPL, but it seems fitting to pick out one from the Chennai Super Kings, who endured their worst campaign in recent history.
The player in question is none other than veteran Ravichandran Ashwin, who cost the Super Kings ₹9.75 crore at the IPL auction to bring him back to Chennai for the first time since 2015. However, the spinner had a forgettable season, picking up just seven wickets in nine matches at an economy rate of 9.13.
Throughout the competition, Ashwin appeared reluctant to flight the ball on the spin-friendly pitches in Chennai, and he struggled for rhythm during key phases such as in powerplays and middle overs. Unfortunately for the five-time champions, their gamble on experience over current form did not pay off.
