IPL 2025: Virat Kohli leads the way as traditionalists make their mark with bat and ball

Many of the best performers this season are top tier all-format players

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's star batter Virat Kohli has been in vintage form this IPL season. AFP

At just 14 years of age, Vaibhav Suryavanshi delivered arguably the greatest performance in the nearly two-decade long history of the Indian Premier League.

The bravery of that 35-ball century for Rajasthan Royals, against the quality and experience of the Gujrat Titans bowlers, combined with the level of competition, make it one of the most remarkable moments in cricket history.

IPL 2025, or any other season for that matter, will struggle to top that.

There have been other inspiring tales in the tournament as well; like Hyderabad's Abhishek Sharma and Punjab opener Priyansh Arya's superlative tons under pressure, an unknown name such as Mumbai spinner Vignesh Puthur making waves on debut, and many youngsters showing that they belong on the big stage.

But away from the attention grabbing exploits of youngsters, the traditionalists and veterans of the game have quietly gone about their business and emerged as the heartbeat of their teams this term.

If you look at the top teams in the points table and pick out their best performers, a pattern emerges – more of technical proficiency and less of explosive intent.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru star batter Virat Kohli is the second highest run-scorer so far while their pace spearhead Josh Hazlewood is the leading wicket-taker.

Gujarat Titans are firmly in the race for the play-offs and their opener Sai Sudharsan, a classic opening batter, is the tournament's top run-getter while their pacer Prasidh Krishna, who is in India's Test plans, is among the IPL's most impactful bowlers, placed second in the wickets charts as of Wednesday.

There are other players of similar ilk who have performed consistently; KL Rahul with the bat and Mitchell Starc and Kuldeep Yadav with the ball for Delhi, Trent Boult with the new ball for Mumbai Indians, Jos Buttler at one down for Gujarat, among others.

Sure, there are T20 specialists who have excelled, such as Suryakumar Yadav, who is the highest run-scorer for the fast rising Mumbai and Nicholas Pooran who is in devastating form for Lucknow.

But overall, the traditionalists are winning. And the reason behind it is simple – conditions.

This season, the Indian cricket board has made an attempt to tackle the issue of balance between bat and ball, succeeding in containing ultra high-scoring matches and resulting in a rise in value of quality bowling attacks.

Firstly, pitches at all venues have seen life injected into them. Variable bounce and grip have kept fast-bowlers and spinners in the game, with even traditional finger spinners such as Delhi captain Axar Patel doing a commendable job; something which was not possible in recent seasons.

Also, teams have been allowed to use saliva on the ball again, giving the faster bowlers better chance to shine the ball appropriately and generate reverse swing wherever possible.

And finally, to a lesser degree, IPL organisers have cracked the whip on illegal oversized bats. On-field umpires have been checking the thickness of the bats of every batter walking in; many have been caught using improper equipment.

This has resulted in a more nuanced battle between bat, ball and conditions, where targets of 180 are not straightforward.

This has allowed a purist like Kohli to build his innings and play the game at a tempo which might not be exhilarating, but gets the job done; Bengaluru are top of the table mainly due to his runs.

Boult is making early inroads with the new ball, while Hazlewood has become devastating with the new and old ball, getting bounce up front and nailing the yorkers at the end with reverse swing.

For Delhi, Rahul has been in sublime form and he has been able to change gears according to the situation.

Almost all consistent performers this IPL are top-tier Test players. Those who know the art of grinding it out and understand the value of incremental progress in a long tournament like the IPL.

For context, Sunrisers' Abhishek and Ishan Kishan scored a stupendous centuries but have failed otherwise.

The moment the pitches become challenging, the game – even in T20s – demands more from players. It was a similar scenario during the Champions Trophy in Dubai where vastly challenging surfaces aided as many as four spinners in the playing XI.

The final was won by India who eschewed flamboyance and worked on absolute basics of run scoring, and dot-ball accumulation while bowling.

Maybe next season, the pitches will become flat again and we will see 250 beats 240 games regularly. But this year is for the 'purists'.