We take a look at five IPL 2025 players who have squandered their chances of making India's 2026 T20 World Cup squad.
The IPL 2025 season is approaching the business-end with the league stage in its final phase. None of four qualification spots for the IPL 2025 playoffs have been officially sealed yet (although GT and RCB are through for sure) with five teams still in contention. Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad have been eliminated from the tournament with KKR and LSG also all but out.
While the major talking point this season has been that of how competitive this season has been, individual performances cannot be counted off. In fact, this is the final IPL before the 2026 T20 World Cup, which is sill quite far away and is scheduled to take place in February.
There will be competition for spots in the Indian team itself across all departments. With the veteran trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja having retired from T20Is, the transition has already begun and it will be interesting to see the players who will make the cut.
While the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill are most likely to make the final Team India squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup, there are a few players who might have squandered their chances due to poor outing in IPL 2025. We take a look at five of those players here:
Matches – 11, Runs – 239, Average – 23.90, Strike-rate – 140.59
Rajat Patidar, the new Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain, may not have enjoyed an IPL 2025 he would have wanted with the bat. He has very often been unable to convert starts into big knocks, with the only exceptions being against Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. He had scored fifties in both of those matches but lack of consistency has not helped his case.
India would want someone who can hit fearlessly in the top-order but Patidar has been left with a lot to do. And a finger injury that he sustained against Chennai Super Kings in the last match only hampers his chances further.
Matches – 11, Runs – 128, Average – 12.80, Strike-rate – 99.22
It’s safe to say that Rishabh Pant has failed to live up to his price tag of INR 27 crore at Lucknow Super Giants. He is already fighting for a spot in the Indian cricket team with the likes of KL Rahul, Sanju Samson and even Ishan Kishan. Rishabh Pant’s underwhelming performance in IPL 2025, where he has lacked confidence and fearlessness, will put him behind the pecking order for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Matches – 12, Runs – 197, Average – 32.83, Strike-rate – 153.90
It comes without any doubt that Rinku Singh is a proven finisher but he hasn’t been at his best throughout IPL 2025. He has run hot and cold this season and the fearless approach in batting is missing in Rinku Singh.
This is not the same Rinku Singh who batted with full confidence in IPL 2023, when he had slammed five sixes against then Gujarat Titans pacer Yash Dayal. A fresh injury setback during the recent game against Rajasthan Royals only worsens Rinku Singh’s early hopes of making the India squad for next year’s T20 World Cup.
Despite being in red hot form, he had found it tough to find a place in the 2024 T20 World Cup squad. Two years later, it could be even harder.
Matches – 12, Runs – 301, Average – 33.44, Strike-rate – 130.86
It has been a mixed outing for Chennai Super Kings’ Shivam Dube. The all-rounder did produce a few impactful performances in IPL 2025, including a 32-ball 50 against Mumbai Indians and a match-turning knock vs KKR, but has been far from convincing overall.
With him being on the fringes of the squad already, a good season might have helped him make the T20 World Cup, but that’s not longer the case and it’s hard to see him push out some of the other youngsters who have emerged.
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The 31-year-old had been often effective against spinners in the middle-overs but that has not been the case this season. As of May 8, Dube has a strike-rate of 107.8 against spinners in the IPL, significantly lower compared to last year. In 2023, he had a strike-rate of 176.47. That reduced to 155.35 in 2024.
Matches – 10, Wickets- 9, Average – 41.67, Economy rate – 10.424
Lucknow Super Giants spinner Ravi Bishnoi has had a mediocre IPL 2025 with nine wickets from 10 matches. He has also been a victim of bowling expensive figures. An example of that was when he registered figures of 2/53 against Delhi Capitals on March 24.
Digvesh Rathi, another spinner in the Lucknow Super Giants set-up, has fared much better than Bishnoi with 12 wickets from 11 matches at an economy of 8.09,
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