1XBET carried out a large-scale study to find out how the results of the 2025 Indian Premier League affected fan support.
The season brought several major surprises: Royal Challengers Bangalore won their first-ever title, 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi made a stunning debut and Sai Sudharsan showed brilliant progress by scoring 759 runs and rightfully claiming the Orange Cap.
As part of the study, over 3,000 respondents were surveyed. They picked their MVP of the season, the most successful captain, and the best young player.
Sai Sudharsan showed the most impressive progress. A month before the start of IPL 2025, he wasn’t even in the top 10 players chosen by fans. But after the championship, he became the leader of this ranking, receiving over half the votes. Interestingly, Sudharsan was supported most actively by fans from Maharashtra (11.17%), rather than from his home state of Tamil Nadu (5.49%).
Suryakumar Yadav also had a great season. After IPL 2025, he gained 10% more votes compared to the survey before the season and moved up from 10th place to second in the rankings. This rise was helped by votes from fans in Uttar Pradesh (12.50%), even though he was born in and plays for the Maharashtra team (9.87%).
Indian cricket legend Virat Kohli finishes third, receiving 8.60% of fan votes. Before the championship, he was the ranking leader and met fans’ expectations, playing a key role in the final and helping RCB end an 18-year trophy drought.
Also in the top 5 are Shreyas Iyer (7.05%) and Heinrich Klaasen (4%).
The study showed that the most active voters were men aged 25-34. On average, this age group made up 30-50% of the votes, depending on the player. The research also revealed growing interest in cricket among younger fans: supporters aged 20-24 strongly backed Virat Kohli, matching the activity level of the 25-34 age group, both contributing 33% of the votes.
According to the 1XBET survey results, the top three IPL captains were Shreyas Iyer, PBKS (58.5%), Rajat Patidar, RCB (23.2%) and Hardik Pandya, MI (3.8%).
The survey also named the top 5 players fans believe failed in IPL 2025 – Rishabh Pant (20%), MS Dhoni (9.2%), Mohammed Shami (5%), Hardik Pandya (4.7%) and Abhishek Sharma (4.6%).
At just 14, Vaibhav Suryavanshi became the youngest player in IPL history and plays better than many veterans. He played seven matches and scored 252 runs. He also has a high strike rate of 206.56.
The results of the India Cricket Next Gen Study confirmed that the IPL 2025 season brought plenty of exciting matches, surprises and standout individual performances. This season also saw many high-profile debuts with young players are developing very quickly.
The IPL and India’s regional leagues can be followed with 1XBET and the rise of new legends in the cricket world enjoyed.
