The IPL 2025 season is a sleep away from now as 10 teams gear up for the high-octane tournament. Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will open their campaign against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens on Saturday, March 22.
With the tournament having created a lot of buzz already, cricket pundits are predicting which four teams can make it to the playoffs in the upcoming season.
Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag made his predictions during a show on Cricbuzz. The former opening batter excluded five-time champions Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru from his list of predictions.
Meanwhile, Sehwag also predicted two teams who have not won an IPL trophy so far, can make it to the last four. Sehwag's predicted teams for the playoffs are - Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants.
Notably, other cricket experts also made predictions for the playoffs. Former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist predicted PBKS, MI, SRH and Gujarat Titans to make the final four. Former South Africa all-rounder Shaub Pollock predicted MI, CSK, SRH and PBKS to go through the league stage, while the ex-New Zealand star predicted CSK, KKR, SRH and PBKS to sail through.
Notably, only a couple of experts - Rohan Gavaskar and Harsha Bhogle - chose RCB in their predicted list. Rohan Gavaskar predicted RCB, SRH, Delhi Capitals and MI to make their way into the playoffs, while Harsha Bhogle named SRH, MI, KKR and RCB as the potential teams who can sail through to the next stage.
IPL 2025 will see a few rule changes too. The ban on saliva usage on the ball has been revoked for IPL 2025, while the captains will face no bans for over-rate offences, instead, they will accumulate demerit points for those offences with a ban only coming in extreme cases.
The tournament will also introduce a new rule of a second ball in the second innings in the night matches. This will be done to mitigate the dew factor which gives a reasonable advantage to chasing teams.