IPL 2025: ’Home advantage’ debate heats up — how did BCCI react to KKR and LSG’s complaints? Explained

Home advantage is a real phenomenon in football. Boisterous crowds and the nature of the grass significantly improve the home team’s chance of winning. Does it exist in cricket, specifically in IPL? Let’s explore.

IPL 2025: Managements disappointed

CSK head coach Stephen Fleming has said CSK haven’t been able to read the conditions in Chennai in recent years. His assessment came after CSK’s big defeat to RCB by 50 runs last Friday.

KKR head coach Chandrakant Pandit also expressed his liking for favourable home conditions and confirmed that his team has no say in the preparation of pitches at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

RCB head coach Andy Flower, speaking to the press after his team’s defeat to Gujarat Titans, expressed a bit of surprise about the way the Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch behaved, but didn’t blame the pitch for the final result.

However, the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants, Zaheer Khan, made a scathing assessment of the pitch offered for the game against Punjab Kings. “Maybe it looked like the Punjab curator was out here,” said Zaheer Khan.

What about the others?

Punjab Kings are yet to play a home game. Mumbai Indians played only one home game and posted a big win against KKR.

Parthiv Patel, Gujarat Titans batting coach, confirmed to the host broadcaster that they picked the black soil pitch to nullify the Mumbai Indians batters. Ahmedabad, the Gujarat Titans’ home venue, has both red soil and black soil pitches.

Sunrisers Hyderabad smashed 286 in their first home game and lost the second home match to Lucknow Super Giants.

What BCCI says

The BCCI has rubbished all these claims. “The pitches have been good so far. Hence, they may be asking for pitches that have more help for bowlers. But there needs to be better communication between the franchise and the curators. It can’t happen within a week of the IPL season,” The Times of India quoted a BCCI source as saying.

The BCCI guidelines clearly state that the teams and players shouldn’t interfere in the preparation of pitches.

IPL 2025: Home teams’ performance

The 18th edition has witnessed 14 matches, and the home teams have managed to win 7 of those. Home teams managed to win 57 per cent of the matches in the 2024 season, winning 39 of the 68 completed matches.

IPL 2024: Best home teams contest final

The three teams with the worst home record finished in the last three positions in the league stage of IPL 2024. Sunrisers Hyderabad, the team with the best home record (5 wins in 6 matches) reached the final. Three teams — KKR, CSK, and DC — had the joint-second best record (5 wins in 7 matches) and KKR reached the final and clinched their 3rd IPL title.

Historic performance

CSK’s record at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is the best home record in the league’s history, and fittingly, they have won the most titles.

Best home records in IPL, primary home venues

CSK in Chennai – 69.8% (5 titles)

RR in Jaipur – 64.9% (1 title)

SRH in Hyderabad – 62.7% (1 title)

MI in Mumbai – 61.6% (5 titles)

KKR in Kolkata – 58.4% (3 titles)

The three teams with poor home records — DC, RCB and PBKS — are, incidentally, the three teams without an IPL title.

Way forward

Assembling the squad based on the home venue is one way to mitigate the circumstances.

The other option, an expensive one, is to own the stadium outright. This will give complete autonomy to the team management.

At present, the teams don’t own the stadium. They pay rent to the home state cricket association, which is affiliated with the BCCI.

Stay updated on all the action from the IPL 2025. Check the IPL 2025 Schedule, track the latest IPL 2025 Points Table, and follow the top performers with the Orange Cap and Purple Cap.