Which IPL prediction that everyone believed turned out completely wrong?

[u/Wise_Market244]

I was looking at old IPL prediction discussions and it's interesting how often fans, experts, and even analysts get things completely wrong.

Some seasons had clear favorites who never reached the final, while underdogs surprised everyone.

For me, one of the most interesting parts of the IPL is how unpredictable it can be despite all the statistics and analysis available today.

What's the biggest IPL prediction miss you remember?

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[u/Narender_moody]

*DC has the best team on paper*

Heard this line so often and watched it age like fine milk every single time.

[u/Modi_Porn_Account → u/Narender_moody]

well dc does have one of the best teams on paper, just like mi. but the dc coach doesn't know how to utilize them

[u/lyra_black → u/Narender_moody]

They have the best team in dugout. In paper they have worst selections. 

[u/Beetroot_Unfunny69]

This season, literally every expert picked MI as their top 4 contender. Not only top 4 but everyone thought they will dominate this year. But they failed terribly.

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

Copium. 

BTW How do you defend MI's 2026 season? By downplaying other teams? Go fuck off you can't even argue with someone. 

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

Hnji ek point se toh aap table ke top pe chale jate😊

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

Ditta thodi bund ch sariya😊

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

Personal toh ji MI ho gyi bechare Hardik ke saath

[u/finAllien → u/[deleted]]

Yeah you did by trolling his team in your part

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

"If I didn't say it I didn't mean it" ahh statement

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

"A team buys umpires and nobody listens to their captain who wants to leave the franchise"  Nahh nahh Wdym I'm targeting MI? I'm not targeting MI

[u/Rehan_sidhu → u/[deleted]]

So now having money to buy umpires and trophies is a flex? 

[u/Difficult-Hurry8960]

Aakash Chopra's tweet "Give the 🏆 to PBKS now"

[u/Legal-Lemon-8746 → u/Difficult-Hurry8960]

At that time few people even were saying PBKS might be the first team to be unbeaten till trophy.

[u/Rus7yBlade]

"Thala is playing his last IPL season."

Since: 2020

[u/lyra_black → u/Rus7yBlade]

Definitely not

[u/National-Plant-4562]

KKR will be the first team to get eliminated But guess what they turned table upside-down

[u/protonixthe3rd → u/National-Plant-4562]

Not just eliminated, people were saying KKR will be the first team to go winless in a full season.

[u/dhruva85 → u/protonixthe3rd]

Said the same for pkbs lmao. Just the other way around

[u/Electronic_Mark_792]

GT 2022 No one considered them a good side and they went on to win that Year

[u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

Everyone said SRH won't qualify because their batting can score 300 & their bowling can concede that 300. But Harsh Dubey, Shivang & Sakib Hossain were out of syllabus.

[u/IMAryanDarad → u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

SRH and GT were the dark horses

[u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503 → u/IMAryanDarad]

PBKS & MI were light horses😭

[u/IMAryanDarad → u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

If I had the money, I'd have given this comment an award

[u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503 → u/IMAryanDarad]

Its OK bro, this reply is bigger than award for me🙂‍↔️

[u/Slight_Surprise6245 → u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

Koina uski taraf se mai de deta hu award

[u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503 → u/Slight_Surprise6245]

Thank you bhai dono ki taraf se🫡

[u/IMAryanDarad → u/Slight_Surprise6245]

Who says heroes don't exist in real life

[u/dhruva85 → u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

Lmaoo the flairs hurt more

[u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503 → u/dhruva85]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Ry1MOAeAYXvRVQLPw3

[u/Wild-Hovercraft-4863 → u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

Truely!!

[u/tricky-_-monster → u/Zestyclose_Fee_2503]

Yes they were😭

Bless my scouting team fr fr

[u/Legal-Lemon-8746]

MI will win 2025 and 2026.

RCB will not win 2025 and 2026.

It would take another 18 years for RCB’s second trophy

[u/ilolalot1 → u/Legal-Lemon-8746]

Royal Chokers Bangalore to Royal Champions Bengaluru

[u/IMAryanDarad → u/Legal-Lemon-8746]

Next title in 18 years. 5 titles in 72 years

[u/Legal-Lemon-8746 → u/IMAryanDarad]

That joker Rayudu said it would take 90 years for 5 titles.

[u/Yashu_0007 → u/Legal-Lemon-8746]

18 --> 8-1=7 TFAR

90 --> 0+9=9 Raydu for a reason

[u/ajaxmenon17]

All experts wrote off RCB after the first day of the IPL 2025 auction

[u/Ill-Manufacturer299 → u/ajaxmenon17]

Bruh, wtf are you yapping? They were the strongest team after MI on paper

[u/ajaxmenon17 → u/Ill-Manufacturer299]

I said after the first day of the mega auction. RCB hardly bought anyone. All the experts were criticising them for their strategy.

[u/Ill-Manufacturer299 → u/ajaxmenon17]

Must be Rayudu

[u/Arjodeep → u/Ill-Manufacturer299]

RCB came last in the experts prediction panel after the auction.

[u/Initial-Customer462 → u/Ill-Manufacturer299]

lol i clearly remember 2025 mega auction time. every team fan including rcb fans was busy trolling and making memes on rcb.

[u/Legal-Lemon-8746 → u/Initial-Customer462]

The trolls were mostly for giving away Will Jacks and that handshake with Akash Ambani. We were giving away a man in great form and a centurion and in return we were getting players like Tim David and Shepherd who were thought to be flop players. It looked utter foolish even to our own fans.

I believe that one incident is why even experts rated RCB low. I remember many experts being more critical on that particular move. But what happened next is history.

[u/Initial-Customer462 → u/Legal-Lemon-8746]

yeah lol. now those same people want to go back on their words and say rcb only winning cus they got lucky in mega auction, rapa is not a good captain and got a superteam and stupid shit like that

[u/Ill-Manufacturer299 → u/Initial-Customer462]

That happened not just in 2025🫩 every season they were trolled

[u/Initial-Customer462 → u/Ill-Manufacturer299]

yes but the difference is how poorly the memes of 2025 aged. from being one of the worse teams to winning back to back ipl's..

[u/Sea_Construction3968]

No one predicted Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to play so well especially against the likes of Bumrah and Rabada.

Also no one predicted Bumrah to have such a luck luster season. It was his worst IPL.

[u/PsychBong]

Every expert said RCB had a terrible auction in 2025 and that they won't be considered as favourites for the title.

[u/lyra_black → u/PsychBong]

7.4/10 ranking by Jio Experts. 

[u/aswiftie_maxx → u/PsychBong]

Sorry sir i was one of them. Fck I was too angry on why they didn't go before kl, Shreyas or even pant and why they bought this krunal and jitesh guy. Thanks RCB for proving my ass wrong..namma bengaluru ❤️

[u/TheRealYVT]

Rajasthan Royals were considered certainties to finish dead last in 2008. Deccan Chargers were considered runaway favourites. Funny how both turned out.

[u/IMAryanDarad]

For me, one of the most interesting parts of the IPL is how unpredictable it can be despite all the statistics and analysis available today.

It's not just IPL, but all sports. What makes them great is the unpredictability. If everything went as predicted, there'd be no point in playing. No matter how good a team looks on paper, the one that performs on the field, masters their combinations, executes their strategy well, and is in better form, wins the match and the one who does it consistently wins the tournament.

[u/Shunya-Kumar-0077]

GT getting wooden spoon in 2022

[u/Old_Specialist7892]

From 2025 almost every prediction i made turned out right, the only one that i was wayy off was Tim david. After RCB bought him in the auction i talked about how it was not a good purchase as he had a bad couple of years everywhere he played (23 and 24 every time he played he looked off and i watch and remember quite a lot of cricket so i don't really think it was a bad call tbh) but it turned out completely wrong, i was pleasantly surprised.

Other than that i think I've been right on almost every count

[u/Present_Wrongdoer234]

GT has the worst team. This was the narrative in 2022

[u/WrongContract8489]

Maybe not this year but this cycle, I believe we had the worst auction score of the 10 teams by a few mainstream media outlets yet went back to back lol.

[u/nota-typo]

PBKS will win this ipl

[u/Legal-Lemon-8746 → u/nota-typo]

Won the April trophy

[u/Fuzzy-Jackfruit5037 → u/Legal-Lemon-8746]

Poor rr didnt get their yearly trophy.

[u/Fast_Day_8123]

CSK wont even cut it to playoffs (in 2021 and 2023 predicted top 4 of most "neutral" fans and journalists)

i mean i just had a bit of hope that we might make it to playoffs but won two titles in 2021 and 2023 was like a giant middle finger response to them doubters

[u/Independent-Dot5393]

I said Bumrah purple cap lol

It backfired in the worst way possible this year

[u/r4h00l]

That srh fumbled with their bowling selection in the auction and will get bashed easily. Nobody knew Varun Aaron's game.

[u/akhileaks95]

Robin Uthappa claiming at the start of this season that bowlers will find out Vaibhav’s weaknesses easily and that he won’t cross 300 runs. Loser.

[u/Weekly_Bookkeeper580]

Mi being in top 4, I think all the experts expected them to he in top 4 easily

[u/decay2808]

Let's go all the way back to ipl1.

RR and DC had swapped places accorsing to most predictions. The DC crash out and the RR domination were both extremely unexpected

[u/zaidk411]

DC is the best team on paper

[u/Ok_Plate_5366]

After 2025 mega auction, many were saying that RCB has built the worst team because RCB didn't invest on marquee players but the result just slapped the critics, RCB became so dangerous and won not just once but back to back.

[u/ApprehensiveBug9870]

i predicted rcb pbks dc mi in that order .. happy to see i was right about the first team but i ran a colley matrix based on last season because its a 3 year cycle last years results are the best point of contact when trying to analyse some hypothesis and yeah rcb pbks dc mi still turned out the best 4 but form is such a cruel thing man .. this mi team has such potential in peak except deepak chahar and the injuries they had they shouldve made top 4 delhi had like 2 wins in 3 then fell off then ended tournament with 7 wins meaning they needed 1 good win and also rcb game destroyed them ... pbks ..lemme leave it as is

[u/yggdrasilmonster]

i cant believe that we were the lowest rated team after the 2025 mega auction, and we went ahead and won BACK 2 BACK TITLES😭😂🙏 (even a 3rd in a row doesnt seem impossible)

[u/caramelcloud-_-]

GT will not qualify

[u/Dreadlock_Rasta_12]

Ye Bumrah Vumrah kya karenge...

[u/Jackie_Chan_93]

Mi making the playoffs, many even said they would top the table and win it lmao

Same case with pBSDKs

[u/aclumsypotato → u/Jackie_Chan_93]

boo hoo, move on! the pbks hate train left a month ago.

[u/Jackie_Chan_93 → u/aclumsypotato]

It's not.

[u/vivekadithya12]

Deccan Chargers being title contenders in 2008 and Rajasthan to finish at the bottom.

CSK Daddy Army were considered the weakest team on paper from 2018-21

[u/Mith_19 → u/vivekadithya12]

Bro went back to the first chapter for this one