- May 5, 2025
Every IPL season is filled with surprises, disappointments, and stories of revival, and IPL 2025 is no exception. While Shreyas Iyer has appeared to be a different person and is confidently leading his team from the front, Rishabh Pant appears to have been given the task of putting together a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. Two captains, two terrific Indian batters, but two very different stories this season. What is it that leads to this contrast? Let’s examine it beyond the statistics.
Built Around the Boss: Why Team Structure Matters
This season has seen one of the largest differences in how teams have built their line-ups and, more importantly, who they’ve built them around. In the case of Shreyas Iyer, it is pretty obvious: they built the team around him. He bats at No. 3, which is the position in the batting order that suits him. The team is built around that (even at the expense of having Marcus Stoinis out of position or having two uncapped openers). The message could not be clearer: Shreyas steers the ship, and the ship follows.
In contrast, when you look at Khaleel’s scenario. Rishabh ideally is best as an opener or an aggressive No. 3, and there has been no opportunity for him at the top this season because there have been significant overseas players like Marsh, Markram, and Pooran competing for those positions. Consequently, it has forced Pant into the middle-order, a position where he simply hasn’t been efficient. Rather than basing a team around their captain, it almost looks like Pant has been forced to fit into a system. Not only is that poor planning, it is a total confidence destroyer.
The Coach-Captain Chemistry Game
Another major talking point is the coach-captain relationship. Shreyas Iyer has a long-standing relationship with Ricky Ponting from their time at Delhi Capitals, and it is evident. There is trust, an aligned vision, and an ease that translates directly to confident decision-making on the field. Ponting knows what Shreyas needs, and Shreyas trusts Ponting’s tactical nous.
Now to compare with the new pairing Justin Langer and Rishabh Pant. They are relatively new to each other, and there is an unfamiliarity there, in both approach and execution. Langer is systematic and intense, Pant is instinctive and chaotic. In theory, not a bad mix, but in the pressure, high velocity world of the IPL, to build that alignment is going to take some time – and unfortunately, in this local format, so tongue in cheek “time is not on Pants side.”
Mental Load: The Keeper-Captain Conundrum
Already a difficult role in T20 cricket, being a keeper compounded by captaincy and batting at a low ebb is what people would call a pressure cooker. Pant’s problems this season have not only been tactical, but mental. A keeper-captain includes himself in every ball bowled. You must read the game, help the bowlers, set the field, and then come in to bat a 50-60 ball innings. What is stress when the runs are coming, is multiplied when they are not.
At the same time, Shreyas did this assignment without the gloves, in a clearer mindset, and with more space. His role allowed him to behave as a 1-3 without the catching position being on his mind. So, when some of his early knocks went his way, confidence became Form, and Form became leadership presence. Unfortunately for Pant, it has been the inverse, as he has played a hostage to the roles and expectations.
As we now look toward the business end of the tournament, you have to wonder: expecting Pant to be able to flip the switch in time, or is this a wake-up call for teams to reconsider how they build around their biggest stars? What do you think: the system, the mindset, or just dumb luck?
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