Xavier Bartlett burst onto the IPL stage in the 2025 season with Punjab Kings, immediately stamping himself as a pace bowler to watch. Over four bowling innings the 24-year-old Queenslander sent down ten tight overs, claiming two key wickets at a brisk strike-rate of 30.00. While his economy of 9.6 runs per over shows room for tighter lines, Bartlett’s ability to break partnerships when it matters is clear—he has already produced one one-wicket burst that shifted momentum in PBKS’ favour. With the bat Bartlett showed flashes of lower-order hitting, remaining unbeaten on 11 off 15 balls in his only appearance, striking at 73 and finding the boundary once. Though modest, those runs underlined his value as a genuine all-round option. Fresh off a breakout Big Bash campaign, Bartlett’s first IPL stint has set the stage for bigger returns. Expect the right-arm quick to add to those two scalps and become a core cog in Punjab Kings’ 2025 title push.

Virat Kohli is the undisputed batting king of the Indian Premier League, a Royal Challengers Bengaluru lifer who has turned loyalty into legend across 18 electrifying seasons from 2008 to 2025. With 8,661 runs off 6,519 balls, Kohli is the league’s highest-ever run-getter, firing at a strike rate of 132 and painting every corner of every ground with 771 fours and 291 towering sixes. His 63 half-centuries and 8 hundreds—topped by a blistering 113*—tell the story of a man who converts starts into statements, walking in 259 innings and delivering a match-defining fifty or hundred in roughly one out of every four trips to the crease. While he has rolled his arm over occasionally, claiming four wickets from 26 bowling innings, it is with the bat that Kohli has authored the IPL’s most enduring chronicle, forever clad in the red and gold of RCB.

Note: This overview is partially generated using AI and is based on statistical data. Please verify with official sources for complete accuracy.