IPL 2025: Three times when pitches came under criticism in the ongoing season

Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season has seen 13 games go and there have been some amazing matches being played. At this point of the season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) are top of the table with four points each from two games. Rajasthan Royals (RR) and defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are in the bottom two spots of the IPL 2025 table. 

Just like the last season, the league has already seen scores over 200 on a few occasion this year. Within just the first few days of the season, there have been voices which have questioned the playing surfaces. There has also been a massive controversy brewing behind the scenes at the Eden Gardens between KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane and the local pitch curator. 

Former India pace legend Zaheer Khan has joined the bandwagon as far voices raising concerns over the pitch. Khan, who is now a mentor with Lucknow Super Giants expressed his displeasure over the playing surface after LSG lost to PBKS on Tuesday. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 286 in the game against RR has been the highest score of the season raising concerns about the game being tilted heavily in favor of the batters. 

Here are the three occasions when pitches were being questioned in IPL 2025

3- Kagiso Rabada’s hits out at high scoring games 

South African pace ace Kagiso Rabada is currently part of Gujarat Titans side in the IPL 2025 season. The 29-year-old expressed dissatisfaction with the way the pitches have behaved in the last few seasons and made it favorable for the batting side. Speaking to Times of India, Rabada said “If the wickets become too flat, then you might not as well call it cricket. You might call it batting. ‘let’s go play a game of batting, guys’. It can’t get too flat. What’s the point? It becomes way too generic. I don’t mind high scoring games. You need those in cricket. But if the conditions are flat too often, then what’s the fun in that? There’s not point”

2- Ajinkya Rahane vs Eden Gardens pitch curator 

KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane saw his team open the season with an seven-wicket loss to RCB on the opening day of the season. Post the loss, Rahane had wishfully added that he hoped the pitch would have helped his spin bowlers more. Speaking at the end of the game, Rahane said “We would love to see a pitch that helps spin bowlers, but this wicket was under covers for the last one and a half days. There was some moisture when we started our batting, and Hazlewood used the conditions really well”. During his chat with Revsportz, Eden Gardens’ pitch curator hit out at Rahane and said “As long as I’m here, Eden Gardens pitch will not change”. Mukherjee went onto question KKR’s spinners and compared them to the RCB’s tweakers and said “Their RCB spinners took four wickets between them. What did the KKR spinners do? Krunal Pandya got three wickets. Suyash Sharma turned the ball to castle Andre Russell”

1- Zaheer Khan laments about pitch after loss to Punjab Kings

Latest voice to question the playing surface is none other than former India pacer turned LSG mentor Zaheer Khan. The left-arm seamer wasn’t happy with the playing surface that was dished out in the game against Punjab which saw LSG lose the game by eight wickets. Zaheer Khan was quoted by ESPN CRICINFO as saying “Considering it's a home game and in IPL you've seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, from that point of view you've seen the curator is not really thinking that it's a home game. I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here,"