5 MVPs To Watch Out For In IPL 2025
Esquire India’s pick of the players who could top the charts this season
Rishabh Pant
The maverick India wicket-keeping batter hasn’t had the sort of explosive IPL run that you expect from someone who’s scored scintillating test hundreds in Australia, England and South Africa. The operative word here is explosive—after scoring the then-highest individual IPL score (128*) by an Indian in 2018, the 27-year-old, known for his powerful bottom-hand game, has experienced success in bursts since. After being bought for the highest-ever sum (₹27 crore) at the recent auctions in Jeddah by Lucknow Super Giants, all eyes will indeed be on Pant. Having grown as a leader over the last IPL season for Delhi Capitals and within a mid-transition Indian team, Pant, known for his one-handed horizontal shots and experimental stroke-making, could prove to be the hard-hitting pivot in Lucknow.
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Abhishek Sharma
To match Travis Head shot for shot isn't a mean feat, is it, now? In IPL 2024, the 24-year-old Sharma opened the batting for Sunrisers Hyderabad, holding his own in the carnage that their top order unleashed throughout the season. Now, after a fruitful beginning with the national side (he already has two T20I hundreds), all eyes are on the fluid but brutal batting style of the southpaw. He’s earned comparisons with Yuvraj Singh, former India star whose six sixes off Stuart Broad in an over in World T20 2007 arguably precipitated the majestic Indian takeover of T20 cricket. Not for nothing has he more than doubled his pay packet (he was paid ₹14 crore in the Jeddah auction) for the 2025 season.
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Yuzvendra Chahal
At 34, Yuzvendra Chahal might feel like a spent force but there’s a reason Punjab Kings shelled out ₹18 crore for the leg-spinner, making him one of the top five buys in this year’s IPL auction. With 205 wickets in 160 matches, Chahal is the leading wicket-taker in the IPL. He has also been in fine form in recent seasons: picking up 66 wickets in 46 games for Rajasthan Royals since the 2022 season. What he also offers is another dimension to the team’s bowling attack, which has a formidable pace attack in Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson and Marco Jansen. Just three seasons ago, Chahal won the purple cap by picking up 27 wickets. If he can replicate that form this time out, the price tag might seem like a bargain.
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Noor Ahmad
Afghanistan’s Noor Ahmad was a crucial part of Gujarat Titans’ bowling attack in the 2023 season—picking up 16 wickets—which saw the team lift the title at the very first go. He followed it up with 10 more wickets in 2024. Now with the Chennai Super Kings, Ahmad, paid ₹10 crore for this season, has the chance to build on a fledgling IPL career with his lethal left-arm wrist spin. And with 4-18 in the side’s opening game, he gave ample proof of that. At 20, Ahmad has a bright future in front of him and plenty of time to prosper. Who better than Ravichandran Ashwin and a certain Ravindra Jadeja to learn the tricks of the trade from? We could be looking at the next Rashid Khan. Or the first Noor Ahmad.
Venkatesh Iyer
Even at 30, the Madhya Pradesh allrounder is still quite new to the international stage, so KKR buying him back for ₹23.75 crore in the 2025 auctions is good enough evidence of his hard-hitting capabilities. In 2023, Iyer was only the second KKR batter to score a hundred after Brendon McCullum’s 158* in the first-ever game of the league. On his IPL debut in 2021, Iyer opened the batting and made a mockery of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s paltry total of 92. Having spent four seasons at the unit and settled into his role as a versatile middle-order mainstay—through a victorious campaign and another where they reached the final—Iyer could come into his own yet as the face of KKR’s new guard.
To read more stories from Esquire India's February 2025 issue, pick a copy of the magazine from your nearest newspaper stand or bookstore. Or click here to subscribe to the magazine.