IPL 2025: Home Advantage Is Vital; But Is It Everything?

Bhargav Dixit

Captains and support staff have pitch-related issues this season. [Source: @IPL/X]Captains and support staff have pitch-related issues this season. [Source: @IPL/X]

Irrespective of how the remainder of the season transpires, Indian Premier League 2025 will be remembered for team managements’ combined lack of contentment with pitches. Home grounds denying home advantage has started to sound like an excuse during post-match press conferences.

In fact, it is for the first time across 18 seasons that as many as four franchises have made public their differences with the head curator of the venue where they play their home matches.

Among the firsts to initiate the blame game, Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach and captain feel that Eden Gardens’ pitches aren’t being prepared as per their expectations (read strengths). To add to the convolution, their mentor believes that crowd, and not pitches, is the real indicator of home advantage.

History Of Home Advantage In The IPL

Historically, only a few franchises have had home advantages. Or have at least tried to build one. Or have looked to capitalize on it.

Considering Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals’ overall IPL record of losing more home matches than winning, they have neither managed to cling on to a home advantage nor a title. Among active franchises, Lucknow Super Giants fall in the same bracket but the sample size is relatively smaller for them.

For Royal Challengers Bengaluru, barring die-hard fans, the only home advantage at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium is batting muscle. A venue with a limited number of pitches at the main square due to the smaller boundary size has next to nothing for bowlers. Hence, batters’ day out on most occasions.

Apart from winning more home matches, Mumbai Indians have also managed to win the joint-highest number of IPL titles. That, however, is mostly because of reasons unrelated to the pitch. Pretty much the same applies to Rajasthan Royals’ home ground, i.e., Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Therefore, Chennai Super Kings and Knight Riders are the two franchises who have developed a home advantage for themselves in real terms over the years. With the MA Chidambaram Stadium and the state of Tamil Nadu developing world-class spinners for India since time immemorial, it is no surprise that the art is one of the reasons behind Super Kings’ IPL success.

Eden Gardens, on the other hand, has turned from a slow spin-friendly surface to a pacers’ heaven in the IPL. Having captained KKR almost three times more than their second-most capped captain, Gautam Gambhir had used both the situations to his advantage back in the day.

Should IPL Teams Have Home Advantage?

As per the rules, no curator is obliged to follow instructions provided by the owners. But if someone does, no opposition or official or organiser can bat an eye.

In an ideal world, if possible, there should be a home advantage beyond fans for IPL teams. That’s how cricket has always been played even at the highest level. Having said that, what should be avoided is for cricket to become one-sided. Or as Gujarat Titans pacer Kagiso Rabada recently said, “cricket should be called batting”.

For a sport which gets officiated by four umpires and a match referee on a particular day, there are enough neutral individuals to ensure the above-mentioned.

Examples of how cricket becomes one-sided is average run rates of 11.20 and 10.89 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium and the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium respectively since IPL 2024. Across the first 17 IPL seasons, these two grounds had produced run rates of 8.33 and 8 respectively.

Although it is in strong contradiction to the T20 format, an extreme bowling example could be akin to Pakistan preparing spin-friendly pitches during their previous home Test season.

Home Conditions Are Vital But Not Everything

There is no going into a safe house around the fact that IPL owners retain and buy players taking home conditions into consideration.

Imagine the plight of a franchise which retains and buys spinners before and during the auction respectively only to come across no assistance for them during the season. Building a team around pacers or batters only to have contrasting conditions has the similar effect.

When all’s said and done, it is also imperative for the think-tank to not crib about pitches post every loss. As established names with decorated careers built across hundreds of matches across conditions, formats and oppositions, it is their job to read different kinds of cricket pitches.

For those entrusted to play, adjusting to conditions on the given day is part of the job description. After all, it’s not as if an Eden Gardens gets converted into an Eden Park overnight. Just because you’ve read a pitch wrongly, it doesn’t give you the right to blacken someone else’s name.