IPL 2025 Final, RCB vs PBKS - Tactical preview

One last match awaits to crown a new IPL champion as Ahmedabad is set to witnesses the grand tussle between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings - the two most wholesome sides in the competition. Ahmedabad has been a batting featherbed throughout the season and the match will be played on the centre wicket which is a mix of red and black soil. It has seen 11 totals in excess of 200 across eight games with sides batting first crossing 200 in all but one instance, where they fell short only by four runs. The only previous game on this particular wicket saw Punjab scoring 243/5 which they defended winning by 11 runs. This will be the first game for RCB in Ahmedabad this season.

Sides batting first have won six of the eight games here and the only win for the chasing side in a night game came in the second Qualifier. Punjab Kings generally preferred to bat first, opting to do so five times when they won the toss, the most by a team in the competition, with an overall win-loss record of 5-4 in completed games. But with their bowling attack lacking bite of late, they could opt to chase should they win the toss as they did against Mumbai Indians in the most recent game. RCB have been the most clinical chasing side of the season winning six of the seven matches they batted second.

Can Punjab top order hold fort against RCB seamers' hard length?

The foundation of Punjab's success has been their top order that constitutes three of their leading run getters and Josh Inglis, who made a mid-season entry, with each of them boasting 160+ strike rates. But one team against whom they have badly faltered is RCB, who reduced them to 53/4, 76/4, and 38/4 in the three games.

RCB are the in form bowling side with the new ball and a large part of their success has been due to their ability to attack from back of length and shorter. RCB seamers have picked 13 wickets at 22.53 with a wicket every 17.3 balls of these lengths, as per data logs, which are the best among seam attacks in Powerplay across the season. Punjab, on the other hand, has lost 18 wickets to these lengths with their average of 22.22 and balls per dismissal of 14.2 amongst the bottom rungs in this phase.

Prabhsimran Singh has been extremely susceptible to hard lengths early on in his innings getting dismissed to deliveries pitched back of length or shorter six times this season. He has a poor head to head against Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting out five times to the bowler in T20s, including twice in IPL 2025. Priyansh Arya has a propensity to hit across the line, but it has landed him in trouble getting out six times attempting to do so. Inglis too have had struggles against Josh Hazlewood's extra bounce getting out caught in the deep twice in six balls he came up against his fellow countryman.

Seam attacks bowling back of length or shorter in Powerplay

Batting lineups vs back of length or shorter in Powerplay

Shreyas Iyer and the RCB jinx

Shreyas Iyer is the man with the Midas touch, turning everything, he laid his hands on to gold. He has an exceptional record in IPL games in Ahmedabad scoring 242 runs in three innings without getting dismissed at a strike rate of 226.17. But on Tuesday, he will be up against his bogey team of the season against whom he has scores of 7, 6, and 2, the first of those being his only dismissal under a score of 30 in games outside of New Chandigarh.

RCB bowling attack is replete with matchups against Shreyas as their four seamers combined have dismissed him nine times across 85 balls conceding only 73 runs. Hazlewood particularly has been a scourge for the Punjab captain getting the better of the batter four times in just 22 balls, two of them in IPL 2025. Krunal Pandya has kept Shreyas silent conceding just 43 runs off 51 balls for one dismissal. Shreyas averages only 24.75 with four dismissals in the Powerplay and RCB will want him out in the middle as early as they could.

Shreyas H2H vs RCB bowlers in T20s

Suyash Sharma vs Punjab's middle order

Suyash Sharma was the latest in line of RCB players to win a Player of the Match award for his efforts in the first Qualifier. Of his eight wickets in the season, five have come in the last two games against Punjab. He has bowled flatter, faster, and attacked the stumps resulting in all five dismissals against Punjab being bowled or LBW. Suyash has especially been good against right handers with seven of his eight victims in IPL 2025 being those at a respectable ER of 8.01. Marcus Stoinis has bamboozled twice with wrong ones and Shashank Singh once, so expect RCB to hold an over or two of him in the back phase of the innings. Punjab can counter this with Nehal Wadhera who has hit 25 off the 16 balls he faced from the leggie, and Suyash in general struggled against the southpaws this season averaging 196 at an ER of 9.96.

A crucial new ball spell for Arshdeep Singh

Opening partnerships have been instrumental in setting up games for RCB as they scored 664 runs at 47.42 at a scoring rate of 10.29/over with seven 50+ stands in 14 outings. They lost both their openers inside the first seven overs four times in the season, and they ended up losing three of those matches.

Arshdeep has dismissed Phil Salt four times in six innings in T20s this year and each of those have come of balls pitched short and angled across the right hander. Salt has been susceptible to left-arm seam early on in his innings (first ten balls) in T20s this year averaging just 15.33. Kohli's numbers against Arshdeep are better - 57 balls, 100 runs, two dismissals. However, both of his early dismissals in IPL 2025 have come against left-arm seamers off deliveries pitched shorter side of back of length, one of which was against Arshdeep in Bengaluru.

That said, Arshdeep has not hit the straps post the resumption, going wicketless in four of the five games and going at 10.39/over. But crucially, his ten Powerplay overs have gone for 109 runs without a wicket in this period. Punjab will want at least one if not both the RCB openers early on and get their middle order exposed to spin with the run rate pressure fully on.

Attack Punjab's fifth bowler combination

Punjab this season has set their strategy based on attacking batsmanship to provide them par-plus totals or chase down tall targets, and a non-negotiable in such a lineup is sufficient batting depth. With Marco Jansen unavailable for Play Offs, Punjab had to make up the fifth bowler's quota from their batting all-rounders as none of their specialist bowlers offer much with the bat. In 42 overs between Punjab's seam bowling all-rounders outside of Jansen, they have managed just eight wickets - three of those in Qualifier 2 - but have conceded at 11.53/over. Azmatullah Omarzai and Marcus Stoinis can be a handful if the new ball swings, but Ahmedabad hasn't seen a lot of it this season which should make the deployment of their overs a challenge for skipper Shreyas, especially if RCB don't lose wickets in early exchanges.

Vyshak as third seamer or Brar against right heavy RCB lineup?

The one selection headache for Punjab going to the final will be to choose between Vyshak Vijaykumar as the specialist third seamer or to go with Harpreet Brar, who has been something of a scourge for RCB in the past, especially with their lineup loaded with right handers. Chahal has been lethal against right handers this season with 12 of his 15 wickets being them at a strike rate of 12.1 and ER of 8.01. He has dismissed Mayank Agarwal seven times in 55 balls, Jitesh Sharma four times in 39 balls, having also kept the likes of Kohli, Krunal, and Liam Livingstone quiet. Tim Seifert has an exceptional record against him in T20s scoring 78 runs off 37 balls without getting dismissed, though their last meeting have come way back in 2021, but it looks unlikely if they will bring him into the playing XII in place of Livingstone.

While both Chahal and Brar have historically enjoyed their matchups against the current RCB batters, RCB have been one of the strongest batting line ups against these two bowling types. They average 40.29 and score at 149.56 against leg spin and left-arm orthodox combined, both the fourth best in the competition despite left-handers facing just 21.6% of balls against them, the figure comfortably the lowest among all sides. Salt has been exceptional, striking at 196, pouncing on anything marginally short rocking off the back foot. Kohli too has been willing to play the slog or slog sweep should the bowler err in length marginally, with 62% of his runs scored on the on-side. Each of their middle order batters have been striking at 150+ suggesting this matchup won't be one way as often it used to be the case in not so distant past.

RCB batters vs Punjab spin twins in T20