Big picture: The break-up of the holy trinity
Seven teams have their names etched on the IPL trophy. One of them doesn't exist anymore. Two weren't part of the league when it began.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) have been IPL ever-presents. They've made four finals between them, but neither has won the title.
RCB and PBKS have instead come to be grouped with Delhi Capitals (DC), another trophy-less OG franchise, into what social media refers to as the IPL's Holy Trinity. There's a certain amount of derision in the nickname, but it's acquired a softer, warmer feel over the years, with even fans of the three teams using it with a sense of irony and solidarity with their fellow sufferers.
On Tuesday night, the trinity won't be a trinity anymore. One of RCB and PBKS will have finally won the IPL, on their 18th attempt. The other… well, you wouldn't want to be in that camp.
For a PBKS fan, it would be another pre-season reset - they've had too many to keep count of - coming to nothing, and an anticlimactic finish to a campaign full of ingredients that would make for a rollicking sports film: a coach who went out of his way to bring in a captain with a point to prove, the two of them creating a space for a group of uncapped, unheralded local players to grow into starring roles, bringing hope to a team that had till then only known misery.
For an RCB fan, it would be a fourth defeat in a fourth final, and all the promise of a new way - a team that finally found the perfect balance between bat and ball, between top-order flash and batting depth, between superstars and support cast - coming to the same old end.
It would be, above all, another bitter blow for Virat Kohli, who has put together another season of insatiable run-scoring - a record eighth with 500-plus runs - at the tail-end of a monumental 12 months that have included T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy triumphs on the one hand and a bittersweet Test retirement on the other. Destiny, surely, cannot be planning an 18th trophy-less IPL season for the man with 18 on his back?
The former RCB batter believes the team has covered all bases as it prepares to play Punjab Kings in the IPL final on Tuesday
Two teams, then, are tantalisingly close to finding the fulfillment that has eluded them for 17 years, but one will fall at the last step of the journey. Seldom has an IPL final promised so much joy and so much heartbreak all at once.
In the spotlight: Rajat Patidar and Yuzvendra Chahal
Rajat Patidar's winning six in Qualifier 1 against PBKS was a symbolic moment for RCB, because their batting approach through IPL 2025 has mirrored that of the captain who took over at the start of the season. He set the tone early on too, with Player-of-the-Match performances that helped RCB beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk for the first time in 17 years and Mumbai Indians in Mumbai for the first time in ten years. His returns have tailed off since, though, and his numbers for the season - 286 runs at an average of 23.83 and a strike rate of 142.28 - don't quite capture his impact. The dip won't faze him though; he'll come out playing his shots, and that's just how RCB might need to bat against a powerhouse PBKS line-up in Ahmedabad, which has been one of the highest-scoring venues this year.
Yuzvendra Chahal has won the IPL once, technically, having played one match for MI when they won the title in 2013. He won't feel like he's won it, though: he's been in two previous finals, with RCB and Rajasthan Royals (RR), and lost both of them. On Tuesday he'll be up against RCB, with whom he played for eight seasons. A hand injury kept him out of PBKS' defeat to RCB in Qualifier 1, but he made match-winning contributions against his two other old teams either side of that. In Chahal's last game before the injury break, his middle-overs craft helped slow RR down after a rollicking start to a chase of 220 - PBKS eventually won by 10 runs. Then, on his comeback, he took the big wicket of Suryakumar Yadav in Qualifier 2 against MI. Chahal has already hurt RCB once this season, taking 2 for 11 in a low-scoring, rain-shortened contest in Bengaluru; can he do it again in the biggest match of the season?
Tom Moody and Varun Aaron on the key battles in the IPL final
Team news and likely XIIs: Will David play?
The one major injury doubt ahead of the final surrounds Tim David, who missed RCB's last two games with a hamstring injury. If he's fit, he is likely to come straight back into their line-up at the expense of Liam Livingstone.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (probable): 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Liam Livingstone/Tim David, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Josh Hazlewood, 12 Suyash Sharma.
Two days after winning Qualifier 2 against MI at the same ground, PBKS are likely to stick to the same combination. Chahal played against MI and bowled his full quota, but PBKS bowling coach James Hopes revealed after the game that he had been at less than full fitness. If Chahal's hand doesn't allow him to play the final, PBKS could either go with just one spinner or bring in Harpreet Brar.
Punjab Kings (probable): 1 Priyansh Arya, 2 Prabhsimran Singh, 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Azmatullah Omarzai, 9 Vijaykumar Vyshak, 10 Kyle Jamieson, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Yuzvendra Chahal/Harpreet Brar.
The big question
Tom Moody and Varun Aaron on PBKS' bowling attack
Pitch and conditions: Final has a reserve day
The Narendra Modi Stadium has been the highest-scoring of the regular venues this IPL, with the teams batting first passing 200 seven times in eight innings - they scored 196 in the other innings - and going on past 220 four times. The team batting first has won six of the eight matches, but the team winning the toss has tended to chase - possibly because of the difficulty of assessing totals in high-scoring conditions - doing so seven times in eight games.
PBKS have played twice here this season and won both times. They played their first match of the season here and scored 243 for 5 in a tone-setting performance, and returned for Qualifier 2, where they shrugged off a dispiriting defeat to RCB in Qualifier 1 by chasing down a target of 204 with an over to spare against MI.
RCB come into the contest having beaten PBKS twice in three meetings, but they will be disadvantaged by not having played in Ahmedabad yet this season.
The pitch for the final will be a mixed-soil (red and black) surface in the middle of the square - this is where PBKS opened their season with a win over Gujarat Titans (GT).
A two-hour spell of unseasonal rain delayed the start of Qualifier 2. There is a chance of rain again on the day of the final, but a low one according to forecasts. A reserve day is in place should the final not be completed on Tuesday.
With elite control and playoff pedigree, he could be RCB's X-factor in the final
Key stats and tactical pointers: The Hazlewood threat
Josh Hazlewood (21 wickets) needs to take a five-for to wrest the Purple Cap away from Prasidh Krishna. While that may not happen, Hazlewood could yet play a key role in shaping the final. He's already taken six wickets in three games against PBKS this season, and dismissed Josh Inglis and Shreyas Iyer twice each. His T20 record against Iyer is phenomenal: 11 runs conceded in 22 balls, and four wickets.
Suyash Sharma has had a marked preference for bowling to right-hand batters (average of 31.57, economy rate of 7.80) over left-hand batters (193.00, 9.81) during IPL 2025, and the contrast is even more exaggerated against PBKS (five wickets at 7.40 and an economy rate of 5.84 against RHBs; no wickets and an economy rate of 7.09 against LHBs). It's no coincidence that Nehal Wadhera, the only left-hand batter in PBKS' middle order, hit Suyash for 21 in 12 balls during PBKS' only victory over RCB this season. He fell for low scores in the other two meetings, across which Suyash took a combined 5 for 43 in seven overs.
While Kohli has freed up his general approach to T20 batting, he still shows a tendency to slow down in the middle overs - particularly the period immediately after the powerplay. Of the 28 batters to have faced at least 50 balls in overs 7-10 in IPL 2025, Kohli's strike rate of 109.61 is the third-lowest, just above those of Ajinkya Rahane (102.97) and KL Rahul (107.31). If Kohli survives the powerplay, his partners at the crease during the early middle overs, and PBKS' choice of bowlers in that period, could be crucial to the flow of the game.
Patidar can destroy spin on his day, but he goes into the final with fairly quiet records against Harpreet Brar (18 balls, 21 runs, one dismissal) and Yuzvendra Chahal (27 balls, 40 runs, two dismissals).
Tom Moody and Varun Aaron on keys for RCB in the final
Quotes
"I think till now I have no idea about Tim David. Doctors are there, and we will get to know this evening."
RCB captain Rajat Patidar on the availability of his key finisher
"All I can say is that I went back to my room and slept. And then I came here. So I have got no news about him."
Is Yuzvendra Chahal's hand okay after he bowled at less than 100% fitness in Qualifier 1? His captain Shreyas Iyer doesn't know, or won't say
