IPL 2025: 3 Best and 3 Worst Openers in the First Week
The first week of the IPL 2025 was full of thrills, entertainment, and close encounters. Each team devised several tactics to counter the opposition. Few players impressed the cricketing fraternity. But some failed to live up to the expectations of the franchise and fans.
Openers whose job is to maximize the first 6 overs of the powerplay zone to provide a brisk start become very important irrespective of the change in pitch conditions after the later part of the game.
3 Best and 3 Worst Openers in the First Week of IPL 2025
Best Openers who enjoyed the Powerplay overs
Sai Sudharsan
One of the finest youngsters in the circuit played his part to perfection in the first week. His ability to play freely and according to the situation has allowed Shubman Gill to come all out. In 2 matches, Sai Sudharsan has accumulated a total of 137 runs at a strike rate of 167.07 with 2 half-centuries including 9 fours and 8 sixes. His ability to play longer innings allows the teammates coming down the order to go after the bowlers. GT would hope Sai continues his form till the end of the season and gives the team memories to cheer about.
Travis Head
One of the most destructive openers in the world of cricket set the tournament on fire once again. His fiery batting has been one of the positives for SRH in the batting aspect. With an average of 45.33 in 3 games, Travis Head has scored 136 runs at a massive strike rate of 191.55 including 18 fours and 6 sixes. His fiery start at the top has given the opposition a scary time. Unfortunately, SRH failed to capitalize on his aggressive start and lost 2 out of 3 matches. The SRH management would want Head to continue the momentum and maybe hope for a miraculous comeback from their remaining batters for the rest of the season.
Mitchell Marsh
LSG bought Mitchell Marsh to go all out at the top and provide a destructive start to the team. Mitchell has successfully executed his role in the three games and would hope to continue this momentum. His ability to take down the bowlers and use the powerplay has been one of the positives for LSG. In 3 games Marsh has scored 124 runs with a strike rate of 182.35 including 13 fours and 8 sixes. The management would want the rest of the batters to compliment Marsh and uplift the team’s morale.
Worst Openers who struggled in the Powerplay overs
Rahul Tripathi
CSK preferred Rahul Tripathi over Ajinkya Rahane with lots of hope for his ability to counter-spin and use the pace to maximize results. However, Tripathi failed miserably in the first week of the IPL. He couldn’t get going as expected and his failure to score runs put more pressure on his opening partner, Rachin Ravindra, and the batters coming down. In 3 matches, he scored just 30 runs with a highest score of 23. The coming matches will be vital for him and the team. Hopefully, a break of 5-7 days will give him and the team a positive outcome.
Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma fails again in making the IPL 2025 a big tournament for him. It’s surprising to see a player of his caliber not having 600-700 runs IPL season. In 3 games, Rohit has a total score of 21 runs in 20 balls. He has been failing again and again in the IPL seasons. His failure to give a quick start to the team cost MI the game against GT and CSK. He needs to come out of his misery soon and give MI a decorative and aggressive start. MI think tank might sit with him and give him positive feedback to look forward to.
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Yashasvi Jaiswal is also among the struggling openers in the first week of the IPL 2025. RR retained him with a big purse, which could be the reason behind his failures. Heavy purses often put an extra burden on players to perform in every game. In three games, Jaiswal scored just 34 runs with a strike rate of 106.25. His failure puts RR in a spot of worry. Dravid and the management might chat with him and ask him to relax and take things easy.
