IPL 2025: Costliest captaincy mistakes of the season

The ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League has seen its fair share of amazing individual and team performances, which have truly made the tournament a memorable one. There have been a lot of high-octane moments which have gone down in the current instalment of the league so far.

However, there have been a few moments in IPL 2025 where the spotlight has fallen on certain captaincy calls. Each edition of the cash-rich tournament has had a few cases of captaincy mistakes, often changing the course of a match, and the 18th season of the marquee event has been no different. In this list, CricTracker discusses five such events of the season.

IPL 2025: Costliest captaincy mistakes of the season

5. Opting to bowl Chahar in final over (MI vs GT, Match 56)

A second delay due to rain in MI’s fixture against GT meant that the game was reduced to a 19-over contest. 15 runs were required off six deliveries. Rahul Tewatia and Gerald Coetzee were at the crease. Trent Boult (2/22 in four overs), Jasprit Bumrah (2/19 in four overs), and Ashwani Kumar (2/28 in four overs) had already exhaused their quotas. Skipper, Hardik Pandya, had bowled only one over. He ended up conceding 18. There was an option of bowling Will Jacks or Karn Sharma, both of who had bowled one and two overs, respectively.

In fact, Karn had bowled quite well to concede only 13 runs. However, Hardik and the management probably felt relying on a spinner would be a risky proposition due to the lingering moisture. Deepak Chahar was handed the ball despite being notorious for being expensive at the death. Hardik decided on not bowling himself. Prior to this, he had only bowled twice in the death in 2025; conceding seven and 21 runs, respectively. A four and a six from Tewatia and Coetzee, respectively, proved enough to steer GT over the line at the end.

4. Tilak being retired out during crucial juncture of run-chase (LSG vs MI, Match 16)

LSG had set MI a 204-run target after the latter sent the hosts in with the bat. Tilak Varma replaced Naman Dhir at the crease after Dhir was dismissed for a brisk 24-ball 46 knock. 115 runs were required from 11 overs with Suryakumar Yadav at the other end. While Suryakumar was being able to register boundaries on a regular basis, it was quite the opposite for Tilak. The southpaw was only able to score 13 runs off his first 15 deliveries. Suryakumar was later dismissed for 67 off 43.

Hardik joined Tilak in the middle. He had scored the same number of boundaries (two fours) in his first seven balls as compared to Tilak in 21 balls at the end of the 18th over. Tilak was retired out on the penultimate delivery of the 19th over on 25 off 23. MI required 24 off seven deliveries at that point. They ended up on the wrong side of the result by 12 runs. Many experts and supporters believed that Hardik should’ve advocated for a batter of Tilak’s calibre to not get relegated to the dressing room in place of Mitchell Santner.

3. Dhoni unnecessarily promoting Ashwin up the order

Ravichandran Ashwin was elevated up the batting hierarchy on three separate occasions this season. His scores read one off seven (No. 6 vs KKR in Chennai), eight off seven (No. 4 vs KKR in Kolkata), and 13 off eight (No. 4 vs RR in Delhi). Two of these games were lost by CSK as KKR and RR won by eight wickets and six wickets, respectively. While Ashwin being sent to bat higher up than usual was obviously not the sole reason for the losses, it was definitely an aspect which sparked considerable buzz.

Prior to the 2025 edition, Ashwin had batted in the top five only thrice in his 16-season-long IPL career. His numbers read 27 runs off 37 deliveries. It is noteworthy to mention that Ashwin emerged as the fifth-highest run-getter for Dindigul Dragons in the 2024 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League while batting up top. It is most likely that CSK would’ve hoped for him to play similar to his outings in the TNPL. However, Ashwin couldn’t come remotely close to delivering the same output.

2. Continuous backing of Hetmyer despite lackluster performances

Shimron Hetmyer was one of the six players to be retained by RR in the mega auction ahead of the commencement of IPL 2025. Looking back, he did not really justify his INR 11 crore price tag. There were only two innings (42 off 23 vs SRH and 52 off 32 vs GT) of real significance. Not only this, he was unable to finish games off for his side. There were immense expectations from the West Indian left-handed batter ahead of the season. However, he could never really justify the faith placed in him.

There were other players of the likes of Shubham Dubey and Kunal Singh Rathore who could’ve been tested by the management. This lack of trust in other players do the job could be partially attributed to full-time skipper, Sanju Samson, and standby captain, Riyan Parag, alongside the think tank. An underperforming Hetmyer was provided with far too opportunities than he probably warranted. Dubey or Rathore could’ve replaced Hetmyer to gain more exposure than they ended up receiving.

1. Poor rotation of bowlers by Jitesh

A right ring finger injury to Rajat Patidar in RCB’s home game against CSK rendered him unavailable to lead the side from the next game onwards. RCB’s decision-makers handed the captaincy duties to Jitesh Sharma in Patidar’s absence. Jitesh was scheduled to skipper RCB from their next game. However, the clash against KKR at the Chinnaswamy ended up being washed out due to persistent showers. This made RCB’s tie against SRH in Lucknow to be Jitesh’s first as their skipper.

SRH raced off to a flying start with the bat. Their powerplay yielded 71 runs for the loss of two wickets. An out of form Ishan Kishan ended on 94* (48), as SRH ended up posting 231/6. RCB were skittled for 189 in 19.5 overs. In the first innings, Jitesh looked somewhat lost during the onslaught imposed by the opposition. Due to that, he made a few errors in utilising his bowlers’ overs. Even in their next game (against LSG), the Amravati-born did not quite make the most out of his bowlers which reflected in his field placements and bowling unit’s performance as well.

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