
Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season was filled with a lot of thrills and spills, and at the end of it, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) managed to win their first-ever title by defeating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the final. In the ongoing year of the underdogs across sports, the likes of RCB and PBKS fought for the right to become the champions of the IPL for the first-time in their illustrious history, and they managed to put on a show for the fans in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
In any sport, the success of the team is built on how the leader of the team gets the best of its players, which is something Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma combined to do impressively well in their first season as captain of RCB in the IPL earlier this month. But, it wasn’t the case for most other leaders across the board, and in this article, SportsTiger rates the captains after the conclusion of the IPL 2025 season.
IPL 2025 captains' ratings
Ruturaj Gaikwad/MS Dhoni (4.5/10)
Ruturaj Gaikwad, the captain of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), suffered an unfortunate elbow injury during the early stages of the IPL 2025 after losing five matches to start off the IPL 2025, which meant that the team management had to pivot to MS Dhoni in the leadership role. The five-time IPL winning captain had a tough time in the initial stages after reassuming the role, but he ended up winning four out of nine matches, while ensuring that CSK also identified young players to invest in the next few seasons after finishing in last place in the standings for the first-time ever.
Sanju Samson/Riyan Parag (5/10)
The Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson had to play as an impact substitute in the first few matches of the IPL 2025 after giving the responsibility of the leadership role to the young Riyan Parag, who found it quite tough. The side strain suffered by Sanju Samson shortly after taking over the captaincy meant that Riyan Parag had to lead RR once again, but this time around, he did better despite the team losing a few close matches, and ultimately, they managed to avoid the wooden spoon with a win in the final match of the season.
Rishabh Pant (6/10)
Rishabh Pant joined Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on a big money contract, but after assuming the captaincy role, he wasn’t able to lead from the front with the bat for most of the season, and with that, the franchise did not make the playoffs despite him being reasonably good in leading the side. The left-handed batter did score a hundred in the final match of the IPL 2025 season, but his team ended up on the losing side, which meant that he ended the season on a sour note.
Ajinkya Rahane (6.5/10)
Ajinkya Rahane was tasked to captain defending Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2025, and many experts saw them as one of the teams to make the playoffs, but it wasn’t to be despite the best efforts of him. The veteran was one of the most in-form batters of KKR in the IPL season, and he did fulfill his responsibility of leading the team reasonably well on the field, but his players didn’t quite respond to him, which meant that they missed out on the playoffs spot.
Pat Cummins (7/10)
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) under Pat Cummins’ captaincy gained the reputation of demolishing the bowling attack, but they weren’t able to do it consistently in the 2025 season, which meant that their playoff hopes were dashed. One of the main reasons why SRH weren’t at their best in comparison to last season was the lack of depth in the bowling attack, leaving team management no choice but to make a lot of changes across the whole season, a far from ideal situation for Pat Cummins to work around.
Axar Patel/Faf du Plessis (7.5/10)
Axar Patel was quite impressive as captain for the first-time in the IPL during the 2025 season with Delhi Capitals (DC), especially in the first half of the campaign, putting the team in a great position to make the playoffs. But, the drop in performances from DC was substantial in the second half of the IPL campaign, which culminated with Axar Patel needing to sit out the last two must-win matches for franchise due to illness, and Faf du Plessis couldn’t secure them a playoff spot.
Hardik Pandya (7.5/10)
Hardik Pandya, who had taken over the Mumbai Indians (MI) captaincy last year, had a torrid time in the leadership role last season, and it didn’t start well for him in the 2025 edition either, losing four out of first five matches. But then, MI rolled back the clock to win six matches in a row before making the playoffs, and they were ultimately dumped out of the IPL 2025 in the Qualifier 2, but Hardik Pandya’s captaincy improved by leaps and bounds as the season went along.
Shubman Gill (8/10)
Shubman Gill is widely regarded as a natural leader in cricketing circles, and he captained Gujarat Titans (GT) to the playoffs quite comfortably in the IPL 2025 season despite losing the last couple of group stage matches to miss out on the top two spots. Although GT were knocked out of the tournament in the Eliminator last month under Shubman Gill’s captaincy, he was given the responsibility of leading the Indian Test team into the future around the same time.
Rajat Patidar/Jitesh Sharma (8.5/10)
Rajat Patidar led RCB to immortality in his first season as captain of the franchise, but he wasn’t available to them throughout the IPL 2025 season due to injury, which meant that Jitesh Sharma took the reins from him in a few matches. While the RCB team management had put together a very strong bowling attack, the likes of Patidar and Sharma were able to get the best out of them in crunch moments, to secure the first IPL trophy for the franchise.
Shreyas Iyer (9/10)
Shreyas Iyer took over the captaincy of PBKS in the IPL 2025, and he ended up becoming the first captain in league history to lead three teams to the final of the tournament. While Punjab Kings lost the IPL 2025 final in a relatively close contest, Shreyas Iyer established himself as one of the best captains in the league history, getting his name taken in the same breath as Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni.