Yash Thakur IPL 2025: 25 wickets, 5-wicket haul, 17.72 strike-rate – Punjab Kings’ new-ball weapon Punjab Kings struck gold ahead of IPL 2025 by securing the services of right-arm speedster Yash Thakur, a three-season veteran already boasting the rare combination of a five-wicket haul and a sub-18 strike-rate. Across 21 bowling innings split between Lucknow Super Giants (2023-24) and now Punjab Kings, the 26-year-old has snapped 25 wickets while sending down 443 high-pressure deliveries. His 17.72 balls-per-wicket strike-rate sits among the quickest for any Indian seamer with 20-plus IPL wickets, while two three-wicket bursts and a solitary five-for underline his gift for breaking open games. Thakur’s most devastating spell came in the 2024 season when he tormented an opposition top-order with 5/30—figures that remain the joint-best by a LSG bowler in the tournament’s history. Despite bowling mostly in the powerplay and at the death, he has kept his economy within striking distance of 10.5 runs per over, illustrating both courage and control on batting-friendly tracks. Having already changed jerseys once—from Lucknow’s green to Punjab’s red—the Madhya Pradesh-born quick will look to add fresh chapters to his wicket tally in 2025, spearheading PBKS’s quest for a maiden IPL title.

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.