Best eliminated playing 11 with impact sub of IPL 2025 ft. KL Rahul, Axar Patel

The league stage of IPL 2025 is done and dusted. The top four teams of this season are Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Gujarat Titans, and Mumbai Indians.

For the first time in 11 seasons, the Punjab Kings have finished at the top of the IPL points table. On the other side, last season's finalists, Kolkata Knight Riders and SunRisers Hyderabad, failed to finish in the Top 4 of the standings this season.

Along with KKR and SRH, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants could not make it to the playoffs as well. While the six teams got eliminated, there were some impressive performers from each of the six franchises. Here's a strong playing XI with impact sub from the six eliminated teams.

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Openers - Mitchell Marsh and Yashasvi Jaiswal

Lucknow Super Giants opener Mitchell Marsh surprised the IPL 2025 fans with his excellent batting performances at the top of the order. Marsh has been playing in the IPL for over a decade, and it was in this season that he registered his maiden century. Overall, Marsh aggregated 627 runs in 13 matches, smashing 40 sixes.

Opening the batting with Marsh will be Rajasthan Royals' rising star Yashasvi Jaiswal. The southpaw is currently sixth in the Race to the Orange Cap, having scored 559 runs in 14 matches. Jaiswal registered six half-centuries in 14 innings during the league round.

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Middle Order - Nicholas Pooran, KL Rahul (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Axar Patel (c) and Vipraj Nigam

The middle-order features three players from Delhi Capitals and a player each from Lucknow Super Giants and SunRisers Hyderabad. Like Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran smashed big hits consistently for LSG, finishing with 524 runs in 14 matches at an incredible strike rate of 196.25.

DC wicketkeeper KL Rahul batted at different positions during the season. Still, he amassed 539 runs in 13 matches and finished in the Top 10 of the batters' leaderboard after the league stage. Meanwhile, SRH's Heinrich Klaasen emerged as the top run-scorer from his team, aggregating 487 runs in 13 matches. Klaasen smacked a memorable century against the Kolkata Knight Riders in New Delhi.

DC all-rounder Axar Patel will captain this team. Patel was appointed DC's full-time captain ahead of IPL 2025. The Capitals started the season with four wins in four matches, but they only managed three victories in their next 10 games. Patel was impressive as captain. As an all-rounder, he scored 263 runs and bagged five wickets in 11 innings.

Ending the middle-order will be DC's newest star, Vipraj Nigam. Vipraj came into the limelight when his cameo helped DC chase down a 210-run target against LSG in Vizag. Overall, Vipraj scored 142 runs in eight innings and scalped 11 wickets in 39 overs of leg-spin.

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Bowlers - Harshal Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad and Vaibhav Arora (Impact Player)

The bowling department comprises three fast bowlers and two left-arm wrist-spinners. Chennai Super Kings' spinner Noor Ahmad will lead the spin attack. Ahmad topped the bowlers' leaderboard at the end of the IPL 2025 league stage with 24 wickets. Meanwhile, DC's spinner Kuldeep Yadav took 15 wickets in 14 matches at a fantastic economy rate of 7.07 runs per over.

CSK's left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed will share the new ball with Kolkata Knight Riders' right-arm quick Vaibhav Arora. Ahmed accounted for 15 wickets in 14 matches, while Arora bagged 17 wickets in just 12 games for the Knight Riders.

SunRisers Hyderabad's death overs specialist Harshal Patel completes the lineup. Patel has the knack of taking wickets in the slog overs. Overall, in IPL 2025, Patel took 16 wickets in 13 matches to attain the 12th position in the Race to the Purple Cap at the end of the league stage.