Even in 2025, not many would have dared to turn down an obvious single like Lucknow Super Giants No. 3 Nicholas Pooran did to smear the ball out of the park off a positive ‘match-up’. Thursday’s consolatory win over the Gujarat Titans wouldn’t have meant as much for the team’s data analysts as Pooran’s downright T20 outlook did.
More context: Batting first on an Ahmedabad flatbed, Mitch Marsh had progressively built up to 89 within the 15th over when a well-set Pooran refused a run after drilling out a block-hole delivery from left-armer Sai Kishore to long-off. Lining up for the favoured angle of the tweaker, southpaw Pooran smoked the next delivery for six, evoking the first significant steps of a true-blue batting leap under the IPL spotlight.
A revolution is on. Debates over T20’s ‘non-boundary’ runs are gathering pace. Is the single (strike-rotation) worth it when all those invested are busy breaking their heads in coupling the brains and brawn to score faster every year?
| Top-order (1-3) batting overall for IPL season | |||
| Powerplay | 2022 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Runs | 6394 | 7625 | 6728 |
| Wickets | 218 | 227 | 183 |
| Average | 29.33 | 35.4 | 36.76 |
| Balls Faced | 5256 | 5100 | 4446 |
| Strike Rate | 121.65 | 149.5 | 151.3 |
| Sixes | 220 | 330 | 315 |
| Fours | 801 | 949 | 792 |
| % runs in bdry | 70.75 | 75.75 | 75.17 |
The top-order (1-3) batters have most resisted change over the years until the SRH revolution of 2024 meant mentalities needed urgent rewiring to go bang from ball one instinctively. Mavericks like Pooran have soared further, validating the sheer value of consistent sixes at the expense of dots in the format.
Intriguingly, the league and its wide range of openers from contrasting schools of thought are also moving forward, with an improvement in the scoring rates and the smartness factor associated with the adventures of boundary-hitting.
Countering premonitions, the six-hitting rate (13.14) in IPL 2025 hasn’t quite caught up with the 2024 season just yet (12.99 bp6), but potent and stabler top-order machinery has meant that change is underway.
64 matches in and with a handful of games left, the top-order bats of most teams have grown quicker while adding runs at a higher average than last year.
Since the return of the 10-team format, the averages (34.20) and the strike rate (157.15) of the top-order are at their highest this season, surpassing 2024’s figures from 72 games (31.01 and 153.98). The spurt is considerable, especially when the overall scoring rates currently stand at 9.50 this year, marginally short of the 2024 edition, the fastest batting season in IPL history at 9.56 runs per over.