Shifting franchise loyalty in the IPL- 3 Spicy encounters to keep an eye on this season

Loyalty and the IPL don’t sit well with each other, or so it appears. 

With player movements constantly occurring, fans have never been able to pinpoint where their loyalty lies. 

Is it with the franchise? Is it about their favourite A-list player, who happens to be the face of the franchise? They don’t know. 

More importantly, the fans hardly seem to care about this dynamic anymore, nor do the think tanks of the franchises. As long as the juggernaut keeps rolling, they’re happy.

Another line of thought is that the conversation around loyalty just pertains to A-listers who are the face of the franchise and enjoy a demi-god status, such as MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma; however, for other less prominent players and mere mortals, the lines have blurred. It doesn’t matter, and the fans don’t care anymore. 

You can’t fault anyone. That’s the nature of the beast. That’s the way the competition has evolved. 

To a large extent, the commoditising of the players has underscored the importance of winning at any cost. 

Even the mega auction in Jeddah last November presented a unique opportunity for franchises looking to reshuffle and assemble a group of players who would give them the best chance of winning the trophy. They jumped at the chance, showing little concern about parting ways with the players they’d spent years nurturing. 

Barring a couple of teams that have gone above and beyond to keep their core group of players intact through the seasons, players coming and going has remained the larger theme of the competition, which is about to turn 18 this year.

In keeping with the theme of this competition, we’ll look at a few key players vs franchise examples that we believe will add a bit of spice to the cricketing action, making IPL 2025 one of the most widely anticipated seasons in the competition’s history. 

Shreyas Iyer and the Kolkata Knight Riders

First on our list is the saga involving Shreyas Iyer and his former team, Kolkata Knight Riders. The man from Mumbai helped KKR secure their first trophy in a decade, pummelling Sunrisers Hyderabad into submission with a clinical performance in last season’s grand finale. Although it remains unclear what transpired between KKR’s management and Iyer after their triumphant championship victory, they ultimately chose to part ways- much to the surprise of everyone.

While the KKR think tank may view it as a missed opportunity, it certainly was not one for Iyer. Following the mega auction, where he secured a whopping ₹26.75 crore offer from Punjab Kings, Iyer happily laughed his way to the bank. However, he could not resist commenting on the lack of effort from the KKR management to communicate retention plans, which he believed contributed to their decision to go their separate ways. 

Key Encounters to Look Out For:

15th April 2025- Punjab Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders

26th April 2025- Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings

Hardik Pandya and the Mumbai Indians

Next is the curious case of Hardik Pandya, who was booed and jeered at wherever he went last season. This is somewhat different in that the swashbuckling all-rounder found himself at odds with the loyal fans of the Mumbai Indians, the very team he was brought in to lead. 

Let’s face it. Pandya is an exceptional cricketer. His stocks rose after he decided to jump ship to Gujarat Titans when a captaincy offer came calling. He did incredibly well, leading the team from the front in both seasons: GT went all the way to win the trophy in 2022 and came agonisingly close to making it a double in 2023, only to be denied by a Jaddu special on the last delivery. 

But just when it looked like he was setting out to create his legacy with GT, he turned his back on the GT fans and decided to jump back to MI — and it didn’t go well with both factions.

The way the mercurial all-rounder was ushered in as the next face of the Mumbai Indians franchise could have been orchestrated better- it was botched up. MI fans viewed it as their captain Rohit Sharma being ousted against his will rather than him paving the way for the franchise’s future. And it was evident in all the ruckus that unfolded when Mumbai Indians took on Gujarat Giants at Ahmedabad. Poor Pandya had to face the wrath of the fans from both factions that day. According to Vaayu Saxena from Mybettingsitesindia.com, a website that lists the best IPL betting sites in India, betting activity was off the charts that day, with most bets stacked against the talented all-rounder. But things have changed since that incident.

Pandya has played a stellar role in helping Team India win two ICC championships. So, it remains to be seen what sort of reception awaits the lad from Vadodara as the club-over-country craze sweeps over the nation in the next two months.

Key Encounters to Look Out For:

29th March 2025- Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians

06th May 2025- Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Titans

KL Rahul and the Lucknow Super Giants

Another talking point of the IPL last season was LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka’s infamous reprimand of his captain, KL Rahul, after a morale-crushing 10-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, which confirmed their exit from the competition. Cameras captured Goenka expressing his dissent to Rahul, sparking debates about how inappropriate it was for a team owner to wander out into the park and confront his captain with millions of viewers watching.

Not everything was well between the captain and the management for the remainder of the season, and it became pretty apparent when the skilled opener requested to be released into the player pool ahead of the mega auction. KL Rahul found a new home in Delhi Capitals at the auction and is now being considered for captaincy alongside Axar Patel, who has been in the Delhi camp for six seasons. It turns out that it’s a straight swap for captaincy with Rishabh Pant, who was DC’s captain last season, being handed the reins at LSG. It’d be a tantalising prospect to see both KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant go up against each other, donning different jerseys this time around. 

Key Encounters to Look Out For:

24th March 2025- Delhi Capitals vs Lucknow Super Giants

22nd April 2025- Lucknow Super Giants vs Delhi Capitals 

With the competition promising many hot and spicy encounters like this, the extra excitement on offer will take precedence, and no one will notice. 

As long as the IPL keeps serving up matches with adrenaline-pumping cricket action, the hit-and-giggle nature of the competition will prevail over everything else. And that sadly means that player loyalty and the fan’s perception of loyalty won’t take centre stage.

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