Kohli one big hit away from snatching back Orange Cap as IPL 2025 resumes

We must start with Virat Kohli. Since, well, it's Virat Kohli, but more importantly, he is the first of the top-five batters this season to return to action; Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) open the IPL on its resumption tonight, much like they started the tournament off back on March 22.

Kohli scored 62 in 33 balls his last outing, against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), his seventh half-century of the season. That took his tally up to 505 runs and to No. 4 (though he was briefly the Cap-holder too). In fact, the top few have passed around - or grabbed from each other - that cap for the past few games.

And there's not between those top-five batters. The table-topper, Suryakumar Yadav of Mumbai Indians (MI) has 510 runs, and the fifth-placed Jos Buttler of Gujarat Titans (GT) has 500. Within those ten runs are two other GT batters, B Sai Sudharsan (509 runs) and Shubman Gill (508 runs). Then comes Kohli, who needs to score just six runs to get the Orange Cap back.

He would want to get more than just those, though. Against what might be a white screen in front of him, at home at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Kohli would back himself to get another fifty - seven in 11 innings already is some record - and the fans in the stands, who are certain to respond emotionally to his Test retirement when they see him, would want nothing less.

Prabhsimran (No. 7 with 437 runs) will get his shot soon, though. PBKS go up against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the next game, on Sunday afternoon, and then the GT trio will get a go against DC, knowing where Kohli stands on the table, and how they need to go to get back to the top.

Not to forget Nicholas Pooran. The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) batter was the early leader on that table before his form tapered off. He is still at No. 8 with 410 runs, though, and if the break in the IPL has refreshed him, the men ahead of him on the Orange Cap list might start slipping from the positions quickly. He will be in action on Monday against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at home in Lucknow.

GT's bowling spearhead Prasidh Krishna and CSK left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad are up at the top - Prasidh ahead of Noor because of his superior economy rate and average - with 20 wickets each, and two wickets behind them, with 18 apiece, are RCB's Josh Hazlewood and MI's Trent Boult.

Hazlewood, however, hasn't played since April 27 owing to a shoulder injury and it's still not clear if he is rejoining the RCB ranks or not for the remainder of the IPL. That means Prasidh (whose next game is on Sunday night) and Noor (in action on Tuesday night) might just feel a bit unthreatened for a bit, since Boult is also not going to be in action till Wednesday, when MI's season resumes.

But it's not just those two who have a shot at going past Prasidh and Noor.

KKR's Varun Chakravarthy is currently at No. 5 with 17 wickets, and will be in action against RCB tonight. As will Harshit Rana, who has 16 wickets, the same as Arshdeep Singh, who will turn out for PBKS on Sunday afternoon. A good haul for any of these bowlers, and the Purple Cap race could well become as frenetic as the Orange Cap race has been.

Here's what ESPNcricinfo MVP table looks like as the IPL resumes.

And here are some other IPL 2025 tables you might want to browse through.