IPL 2025: Predicting opening pairs of all 10 teams

The IPL 2025 is scheduled to start on March 14.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction was a compelling event as fans across the world tuned in to see which franchise gets the big-ticket players and for how much.

Fair to say, it was an exciting event as the bids of INR 27 crores for Rishabh Pant INR 26.75 crores for Shreyas Iyer shattered records and made headlines.

The 10 franchises had been given a limited number of retentions by the BCCI ahead of the mega auction. This meant that most of them had to release at least one of their openers from the last season.

In this article, we will see the opening combinations that the 10 teams are likely to start their IPL 2025 campaigns with.

IPL 2025: Predicting opening pairs of all 10 teams

KKR – Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock

Sunil Narine and Phil Salt played a significant role in KKR’s title-win last season. However, the Englishman was released and not bought back.

KKR roped in South Africa’s Quinton de Kock for INR 3.6 crores at the mega auction and the left-hander is expected to open alongside Narine. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, another opening option, should be the back-up opener.

SRH – Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma formed the deadliest opening duo last season as they hammered 599 runs as an opening pair at a strike rate of 220.

SRH retained both the left-handers for 14 crores each and both will be looking to lit up the IPL 2025 season as well.

RR – Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal

RR retained Jaiswal for 18 crore, but released his opening partner Jos Buttler and didn’t buy the Englishman back; they don’t need to: Sanju Samson has struck three centuries as an opener for India recently and should open in the IPL 2025 as well to further his case for a position in India’s first-choice T20I XI as an opener.

RR have roped in Nitish Rana and he could be an able No. 3 to replace Samson.

RCB – Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal

RCB released their captain and opener of last season Faf du Plessis and didn’t buy him back at the IPL 2025 mega auction. They roped in Phil Salt for 11.5 crores. The Englishman is currently one of the most destructive T20 openers in the world.

RCB have also bought left-handed batsman Devdutt Padikkal, who had two impressive seasons in 2020 and 2021 for them. Padikkal struggled in the middle-order roles at RR and LSG. If Padikkal plays, then he must open.

RCB won’t mind pushing Virat Kohli back to No. 3, despite his huge success as an opener in the IPL, as they don’t have the cushion of either Glenn Maxwell or Will Jacks in the middle-order this time.

CSK – Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway

CSK spent 6.25 crores on Devon Conway at the IPL 2025 mega auction to buy him back. Conway missed IPL 2024 due to injury, and in his absence, CSK couldn’t land a solid opening pair.

Last season, they tried three different opening combinations, none of which really worked for long. That was a primary reason for their failure in reaching the playoffs.

Conway helped them win the IPL 2023 title and would now partner Gaikwad at the top again, barring any injury like last season.

MI – Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks

Mumbai Indians retained Rohit Sharma, but released his opening partner of last season, Ishan Kishan, and didn’t buy the left-hander back. Instead, MI roped in England’s Will Jacks, who is one of the best T20 openers going around in the world.

Last season, Jacks replaced Glenn Maxwell in RCB’s playing XI and muscled a stunning century against a strong Gujarat Titans bowling attack.

Rohit and Jacks could form one of the most dangerous opening pairs in IPL 2025.

DC – KL Rahul, Jake Fraser-McGurk

Delhi Capitals used five different opening combinations last season. Out of them, they released Warner, Marsh and Shaw, used RTM on Jake Fraser-McGurk and retained Abishek Porel.

Fraser-McGurk had a stunning IPL 2024 season, as he hammered 330 runs at a strike rate of 224. He is expected to partner KL Rahul in IPL 2025, who DC bought for 14 crore in the mega auction.

LSG – Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh

The Lucknow Super Giants will have a completely new opening pair this time as they released KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock and Devdutt Padikkal, their openers of last season.

Among the options currently in their squad, Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh are the openers in white-ball cricket and are expected to bat at the top in IPL 2025.

GT – Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler

Gujarat Titans retained their captain and opener Shubman Gill. He had two opening partners last season – Wriddhiman Saha and Sai Sudharsan. Saha was released while Sudharsan was retained. However, the young left-hander might have to go back to No. 3 as GT have also purchased Jos Buttler.

Buttler is one of the most fearsome openers in T20 cricket and should complement Gill’s anchoring role effectively in IPL 2025.

PBKS – Prabhsimran Singh, Marcus Stoinis

Punjab Kings had five different opening pairs in IPL 2024. Of them, only one batsman, Prabhsimran Singh, was retained.

Atthe IPL 2025 mega auction, PBKS didn’t pick a specialist opener. The closest to that is Australia’s Marcus Stoinis, who opens in the Big Bash League. Another option for this role is Josh Inglis, who has opened in a few white-ball games for Australia.

For more updates, follow Khel Now Cricket on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.