Nobody’s pre-season predictions survived 25 matches. If you read our week 1 panic meter, you knew things were bad for some teams. After 25 matches, it is time for the real grades.
The team everyone wrote off is unbeaten. The team with the most expensive overseas player in IPL history has zero wins. And somewhere between those two extremes, your team is either quietly building something or quietly falling apart — and this IPL 2026 mid-season report card is going to tell you which one. No sugarcoating. No “still early days.” Just grades.
Let’s start at the top, where the most unlikely name sits.
The A-Tier: Teams That Are Actually Cooking
Punjab Kings — A+ Four wins, zero losses, one rained-out match, 9 points, only undefeated team in the tournament. Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy has been inspired. Prabhsimran Singh smashed 80 off 47 balls chasing 196 against MI like it was a practice game. Pre-season, nobody — literally nobody — had PBKS as table-toppers. That’s what makes this an A+ and not just an A. They’re not surviving. They’re dominating.
Rajasthan Royals — A Riyan Parag took over as captain and everyone expected a rebuild season. Instead? Four wins from five, Vaibhav Suryavanshi leading the Orange Cap at 15 years old, and a squad that looks like genuine title contenders. Their only loss — to GT by 6 runs — was closer than most of their wins. Parag is silencing every doubter.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru — A- Defending champions sitting second with the best NRR in the league (+1.171). Rajat Patidar’s selfless captaincy has been praised by everyone watching. The only concern? Kohli tends to slow down after getting set. Two losses — including a thriller to DC on April 18 — keep this from being a clean A. But RCB look like they know exactly who they are.
The gap between the A-tier and what comes next is where this season gets genuinely weird.
The B-Tier: Dangerous But Flawed
Gujarat Titans — B+ Lost their first two, then won three straight. Shubman Gill’s 86 against KKR was a captain’s knock. Prasidh Krishna is leading the Purple Cap race and Kagiso Rabada grabbed a 3-fer in that same match. GT are peaking at the right time — which is exactly what they did in their title-winning season.
Delhi Capitals — B+ The quietest 3-2 record in the tournament. KL Rahul anchoring, Tristan Stubbs finishing (60 off 47 against RCB), David Miller smashing 22 off 10 to close out that win. They lost to GT by just 1 run. DC aren’t flashy, but they’re the team nobody wants to face in the second half.
Here’s where the grades start hurting.
The C-Tier: Work to Do, Time Running Out
Sunrisers Hyderabad — C+ Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen can destroy any attack on their day — they just proved it beating CSK by 10 runs. Eshan Malinga took 3 wickets in that game. But Ishan Kishan’s 17th T20 duck while captaining is a problem nobody’s solving. Two wins from five isn’t crisis territory yet. The word is yet.
Chennai Super Kings — C Started 0-3. Recovered with wins over DC and KKR. Then lost to SRH. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s bat has gone quiet and Fleming is publicly defending his captain — which is never a good sign. CSK have no margin for error left. None.
Lucknow Super Giants — C- Injuries to key players, Rishabh Pant not firing consistently, and an NRR of -0.804 that screams “we’re not just losing, we’re getting outclassed.” Two wins from five doesn’t tell the full story. The full story is worse.
The “Oh No” Tier: Genuinely in Trouble
Mumbai Indians — D Four straight losses. Quinton de Kock scored 112 on debut and they still lost. Bumrah doesn’t look like Bumrah. Hardik Pandya is under pressure again. One win, four losses, NRR of -1.076. We’ve seen MI’s slow-start script before — but this feels different.
Kolkata Knight Riders — F Zero wins in six matches. Worst start in 19 years of franchise history. Cameron Green — bought for a record ₹25.20 crore — can’t save them. Anil Kumble called out their “lack of game awareness.” NDTV said they’d be relegated in another league. Coaching decisions are being questioned by former players. The NRR is -1.149 and falling. This isn’t a bad patch. This is a crisis.
Remember those pre-season predictions? PBKS were supposed to be mid-table. KKR were playoff favourites. Twenty-five matches later, one team has an A+ and the other has an F — and neither grade would have made sense in March. This IPL 2026 mid-season report card didn’t just grade teams. It revealed an entire sport refusing to follow the script.