Moneyball in IPL 2025 edition

Moneyball:

IPL 2025 edition

Champions of the 2025 Indian Premier League, Royal Challengers Bengaluru made their biggest splash by acquiring Josh Hazlewood for ₹12.5 crore – and he proved worth every rupee. The Australian pacer delivered a stellar season, claiming 22 wickets at an economy rate of 8.77 and a blistering strike rate of 12.

The team’s most expensive retention, Virat Kohli, came at ₹21 crore, and he paid back handsomely—scoring 657 runs at an outstanding average of 54.75 and a strike rate of 144.71.

Down the table, the returns were far less convincing. Seventh-placed Lucknow Super Giants spent ₹27 crore on Rishabh Pant, who managed just 269 runs – century included – at an underwhelming average of 24.45 and strike rate of 133.16.

Eighth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders shelled out ₹23.75 crore to retain Venkatesh Iyer, who could only muster 142 runs with equally modest returns in average and strike rate. All of which begs the question: who was truly worth their buck in the 2025 edition? It’s not a straightforward call.

T20 is a game of roles and moments – players might not top the run or wicket charts, yet deliver in clutch situations that turn matches and seasons. Value, in this format, is as much about impact as it is about stats.

To figure out who delivered the most – and who didn’t – we analysed every ball of the 2025 IPL season using ball-by-ball data. But instead of just looking at who scored the most runs or took the most wickets, we compared each player's performance to a three-year average (from 2023–2025) to get a more comprehensive picture of their impact.

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