Every TimeIPL Champions Crashed Out Before the Playoffs: Unlike in other sports, like football and basketball, it is difficult for domestic or franchise teams in cricket to maintain success year on year for a long time. This is because of a shortened season, as in a year-long season, the best teams with the best players usually come out on top; in a two-month-long competition, it is anybody’s game.
That is why, unlike tournaments like the Premier League or the NBA, where two-peats (two titles in a row) and three-peats (you know what it means) are fairly common, in the 18-season-long history of the IPL, a team has won the tournament back-to-back only twice.
In fact, it is quite common for the defending champions in the Indian Premier League to not even make it to the playoffs. If we include IPL 2025, where it is going to be the case, the last year’s winner has not made it to the top four on nine occasions in this league, which means it has happened in 50% of the seasons so far.
When IPL Champions Crashed Out Before the Playoffs
The first time it came about was at the first chance possible. The Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural IPL season in 2008. However, in 2009, the defending champions had a disappointing season, finishing sixth.
For the next three seasons, the champs did make it to the playoffs the next year. 2009 champs Deccan Chargers finished second in 2010, and the 2010 and 2011 winner, Chennai Super Kings, finished in the top four the subsequent year.
The second time the title of this article came true was in 2013. The Kolkata Knight Riders won the Indian Premier League in 2012, stopping CSK from a three-peat. However, in 2013, they had a horrid season and finished seventh with only six wins in 16 games. KKR repeated this feat two years later. After winning the league in 2014, they did not make it to the playoffs in 2015.
The Mumbai Indians became two-time champions in 2015. But then in 2016, they finished fifth on the league table a year after winning it all. Keep that exact scenario in mind.
Check Out: When IPL Defending Champs Do Not Reach Playoffs
MI won the league for the third time in 2017, but then, in 2018, they finished fifth. They won the league again in 2019 but broke this trend by winning it all again in 2020, only to return to the course after finishing fifth in 2021.
Mumbai’s arch-rivals, CSK, won their fourth IPL title in 2021, making the IPL, like most large democracies, a two-party system. But they followed up a title win by not only failing to make it to the playoffs in IPL 2022 but also having the worst performance by a defending champion in league history by finishing ninth with just four wins and eight points.
The Super Kings did it again. After winning the league in 2023, they failed to finish in the top four in 2024, finishing fifth, making it the eighth occasion in 17 seasons that the defending champs did not have a good season right after their title win.
And now, in 2025, it is panning out for the ninth time in the history of the Indian Premier League. The 2024 champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, continue their streak of no playoff qualification the year after a title win, and they are now out of the race for the playoffs in IPL 2025.
This means that on the nine occasions this situation has transpired, it has only happened to four teams: the Rajasthan Royals once, the Chennai Super Kings twice, and the Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians three times each.
Check Out: When IPL Champions Crashed Out Before the Playoffs
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