IPL 2025 Major Takeaways from IND vs ENG T20I Series: Bad Series For RCB and MI Fans, Satisfied KKR and SRH

The Indian cricket team dominated in the 5 match T20I series series against England. With the 2026 T20 World Cup to be held in India, this series had huge importance and India from start to the end, were the best team by a mile. There were lot of keen eyes watching this series, particularly the IPL franchises. Both the teams have number of players who will turn-up in the IPL 2025 in couple of weeks time.

The Indian cricket team won the 5 match T20I series vs England with a 4-1 scoreline, lifting the trophy at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on 2nd February. This was a series where the Indian team completely out-classed or out-muscled the visitors.

This was a new generation of Indian T20I boys  who took the field in this series with the veterans now retired. As such, there were many Indian cricket teams fans who kept their keen eyes on each and every player throughout the series. But, more than the fans, there were the IPL franchises who have their eyes on the performance of the players.

Of the India and England T20I squads, there were more than 2 dozens of players (majority from Indian team) who will be playing in the upcoming IPL 2025 season that commences from 21st March at the Eden Gardens, the home venue for the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Bad series for MI and RCB fans

This was not a great series to watch for the Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Royals Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans. While the duo of Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya did well for the Indian team, Varma scored 133 runs and Pandya scored 112 runs, the most disappointing one was the performance from Jofra Archer.

Series to forget for Mumbai Indians’ Jofra Archer

Jofra Archer rejoined Mumbai Indians for 12.5 crore INR after his first stint ended in a disaster. MI still dreams off a great bowling partnership of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer. But looking at Archer’s performance in the T20I series, the MI fans will certainly be worried somewhat.

Archer played in all 5 matches of series and just took 6 wickets. He bowled some expensive spells, particularly in Chennai and Mumbai (MI’s home venue). He gave away record-breaking 60 runs in the 2nd T20I in Chennai and then conceded further 55 runs in the 5th T20I in Mumbai.

Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell and Liam Livingstone all fail

Meanwhile, the worries are even deeper for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). RCB played huge gamble on 3 English players. The Bangalore based side picked IPL 2024 champion Phil Salt as opener for 11.50 crore INR. They also spent big bucks on Liam Livingstone and youngster Jacob Bethell with 8.75 crore INR and 2.60 crore INR respectively.

Except for 55 runs off 23 balls in Mumbai, Phil Salt faced trouble during the entire series. He scored only 87 runs with a strike rate of 152.63. Meanwhile, all-rounder Liam Livingstone also couldn’t trouble the Indian bowlers as he scored only 74 runs in 5 innings and took only 1 wicket. Youngster Jacob Bethell was playing for the first time in India as he scored only 23 runs in 3 innings.

KKR and SRH satisfied

On the other hand, the management and the fans of IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) would be very happy with their players’ contributions. While Abhishek Sharma of SRH finished as the top scorer of the series, KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy won the player of the series award for picking 14 wickets in the series.

Abhishek Sharma scores highest T20I total for India, Mohammed Shami in action

The Sunrisers  Hyderabad (SRH) will be hugely happy with their star opening batter Abhishek Sharma‘s batting efforts. He finished the series as the top scorer with 279 runs and played the best knock in Indian team’s history in T20I cricket. Sharma scored 135 runs in the 5th T20I in Mumbai, becoming the player to score highest individual run in an T20I inning for India.

Also a good news for SRH is that Indian pacer Mohammed Shami returned to action for the first time after suffering an injury in the 2023 Cricket World Cup final. Shami played in 2 matches and although looked out of touch in the 1st match in Rajkot, he picked 3 wickets for 25 runs in the Mumbai match. The only disappointment for them was Nitish Kumar Reddy, who initially included in the squad but replaced due to injury without playing a match.

Varun Chakravarthy won Player of the Series

As for the Kolkata Knight Riders, Varun Chakravarthy’s performance will be once again giving hopes to the KKR fans as they will look to retain the title in the IPL 2025 season. Varun Chakravarthy was the overall best bowler in the league as English batters had no clue about Chakravarthy’s magical spin bowling. He picked 14 wickets in the entire series and had an economy rate of just 7.67.

Other good news for the defending champions and their fans ahead of IPL 2025 would be that star pace bowler Harshit Rana, who picked 19 wickets in the IPL 2024, made his debut India in the T20I format in this series. He was included in the team as a concussion substitute of Shivam Dube in the 4th T20I in Pune. Rana, not only picked 3 wickets for 33 runs in his 4 overs spell, he helped India win the match and seal the series.

Meanwhile, Rinku Singh didn’t get many opportunities and was also ruled out for 2nd and 3rd T20Is. Ramandeep Singh was included in the team as a injury replacement but didn’t get any game-time.