Shreyas Iyer finds the zone and the zen in IPL 2025

“Shreyas started this tournament in form that I’ve never seen him in before” – Ricky Ponting. In IPL 2025, that is a statement that could have been true at any point. It certainly rang loudly true after Qualifier 2, when Shreyas Iyer played possibly the innings of the tournament as Punjab Kings (PBKS) became the first team in history to defeat Mumbai Indians (MI) when chasing a 200-plus total in the IPL. The score that Shreyas got – 87* off 41 – seemed almost incidental to his breathtaking shot-making.

Punjab had been the most underachieving of all IPL sides. While Delhi Capitals (DC) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are also among the original ones to have never won the IPL, they have at least made it to the playoffs – semi-regularly for DC and more often for RCB. Punjab kept languishing in the bottom half of the table, year after year. The change in 2025 was driven by their excellent mega auction under Ricky Ponting, and then the belief that has been infused in a young squad by the Ponting-Shreyas combo.

But the central man has always been Shreyas. He’s the team’s leading run-scorer with 603 runs. It is the strike rate, though, that has been the point of difference. Shreyas is striking at 175.8. It’s higher than Suryakumar Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler. He’s sixth on the overall run-scorers list, but nobody above him has scored quicker.

Full circle in Ahmedabad

Punjab began their IPL 2025 with a game in Ahmedabad, against Gujarat Titans. On 97* heading into the final over, Shreyas unequivocally told teammate Shashank Singh to smash as many runs as he could, and not even think about him getting to a potential century.

This does not really happen with Indian players in the IPL, because the century is still seen as a much-desired landmark. For Shreyas to put the team’s runs above a three-figure mark was already big. That he did it as captain made it even more massive. That he further did it when he hadn’t yet scored an IPL century… well, that was completely unheard of.

It turned out to be crucial because Shashank ransacked 23 runs off the last over and Punjab won by just 11 runs. It also set the tone for how Punjab would play this IPL. They stuck to their ethos despite the occasional collapse that inevitably accompanies their playing style. They did it in Qualifier 2 despite a spectacular collapse in Qualifier 1.

From renouncing his own century for the team’s cause, Shreyas has come back to the venue where it all began for the final one-two punch. He landed a haymaker against Mumbai in Qualifier 2, and there only remains one last peak to conquer, against RCB in the final.

The zone and the zen

“I personally felt that I was in a great zone. I was seeing the ball pretty well. If they pitch anywhere, I’m going to hit it for six – I was in that zone,” Shreyas told Ponting after Punjab beat Mumbai in Qualifier 2.

What was remarkable about Shreyas was that not only did he bat like he was in the zone, he appeared completely calm and in control. He was battering the most feared team in the IPL into submission, and doing it with the easy nonchalance of someone out for a nice evening stroll.

“I always say to myself and to my teammates, the bigger the occasion, the calmer you are, you will get the best results,” Shreyas said after the game. “Today was the right example where I was focusing more on my breathing rather than sweating out a lot over there.”

He took his time while starting, despite the steep chase. At one point, Shreyas was on 12 off 11 balls. Because he knew that once he was set, he could explode like few can.

“When I went in there, I had to take some time. I know the more time I spend on the field, the better I get, and my vision also gets better,” he said. And in the next 30 balls, he smashed 75 runs.

As James Hopes, the Punjab bowling coach, explained: “He’s calm, doesn’t get flustered very easily. He knows his match-ups, he knows what he has to do at certain times, and he’s prepared to take that risk. When he was a younger in Delhi, he was a little bit more explosive and gung-ho, but he scores at a higher strike rate now, strictly because he knows when a bowler comes on and that’s his match-up, he’s going to take it.”

Shreyas had found the zone and the zen. Regardless of what happens in the IPL final, this IPL 2025 season will be remembered for Shreyas the batter and Shreyas the captain.