A Last Chance For Old Hands

EVEN THOUGH THERE isn’t a men’s World Cup, in either cricket or football, or an Olympics, summer or winter—global events that tend to capture the imagination of India’s sports-loving population—2025 still promises to keep us hooked to our television sets all year long, be it with bats, racquets or wheels. Here is the sports forecast for the new year, one that could see several legends in the evening of their respective careers across games and disciplines, sweat it out for one final hurrah.

TENNIS

ALTHOUGH NOVAK DJOKOVIC reached the final of Wimbledon in 2024, where he was beaten convincingly and in straight sets, the greatest tennis player of all time went an entire season without winning a Grand Slam for the first time in seven years. Which is indeed remarkable, given that Djokovic had just experienced winning not one but two three-Slam years on the wrong side of turning 35. But at 38 (which he will be in May), the Serb has fewer opportunities left to continue to successfully defy time. But count him out from adding to his record haul of 24 Grand Slams at your own peril, for he begins the season at his favoured Australian Open—which he has won 10 times before—with a new coach in tow in the recently retired and once great rival, Andy Murray.

Murray, along with three other Slam winners, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin del Potro, retired in 2024. Couple that with Djokovic’s trophyless year and the era has truly changed hands, now belonging to the capable fists of Jannik Sinner, the new World No 1, and Carlos Alcaraz. Sinner and Alcaraz neatly divided the four majors between them in 2024, with the Italian winning the hardcourt Slams of Melbourne and New York and the Spaniard cornering the natural surfaces of Paris and London. But coming into 2025, a doping cloud hangs over 23-year-old Sinner, even as 22-year-old Alcaraz tries to become the youngest man to win a career Grand Slam in Australia.

CRICKET

DESPITE BECOMING ONLY the third Indian captain, man or woman, after Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni, to win a World Cup, life was pretty rough for Rohit Sharma in 2024. There was a series loss in the ODI format to Sri Lanka, followed by a crushing 0-3 defeat in Test cricket to New Zealand, India’s first home series loss in the format in 12 years. Not only did the defeats continue to pile up on the tour of Australia, ensuring India all but crashed out of the reckoning for a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June next year, Rohit’s batting form plummeted, with a string of single-digit scores in Test cricket—10 in 14 innings when the year ended. About to turn 38 in 2025, his form will only get increasingly hard to turn around.

But right in the nick of time Rohit will get a chance to redeem himself in his preferred format, 50-over cricket, at yet another ICC event, the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the UAE. With all of India’s games to be played in Dubai, a bat­ting paradise if there ever was one, the old hands in Rohit and Virat Kohli should return to the fore with elan. And if they manage to clinch yet another ICC trophy in February, then 2024 will fast become a distant memory in the minds of their hurting fans. Speaking of ICC trophies, India perhaps will not be at the third edition of the WTC final at Lord’s— after qualifying for, and losing, the previous two—but South Africa certainly will, having become the first team to do so for this cycle. The Proteas were unlucky to lose the T20 World Cup final to India in Barbados, but perhaps the oldest format in the game could present them with the perfect opportunity to end their jinx at ICC events.

The fresh WTC cycle begins soon after the final at Lord’s, with India taking on England in England over a five-match Test series. Several faces from the tumultuous tour of Austra­lia may not make the cut, but the team will make the journey with an abundance of hope, having discovered promising young batting talents in the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Kumar Reddy. Then there is always the fabulous Jasprit Bumrah, who recently became the first-ever Test crick­eter to achieve 200 wickets at an average of less than 20, to shoulder the burden of the bowling unit. But before that tour, 2025 will also witness quite easily the grandest edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between the months of March and May, following the great reshuffle among the squads at the mega auction late last year.

In that auction, erstwhile Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant became the most expensive IPL player of all time, bought by Lucknow Super Giants for ₹27 crore. But he wasn’t the only player to cross the ₹20 crore mark, as incredi­ble bids were placed on the two Iyers in Shreyas (₹26.75 crore) and Venkatesh (`23.75 crore), by Punjab Kings and defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively. Punjab then went on to shell out ₹18 crore each on left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, in a mas­sive ploy to win their first title. But speaking of winning their first silverware, Royal Challengers Bengaluru also retained Virat Kohli, the only player in IPL history to play for just one franchise since the tournament’s inception, in order to get over the finish line this time.

There may not be a men’s cricket World Cup to build up to this year, but there sure is one in the women’s version, with India set to host the 13th 50-over edition over August and September. The women’s game has come up by leaps and bounds in this country, enough to even warrant their own version of IPL in the WPL. But the Indian women’s team has never won a World Cup in either format. That could change for Harmanpreet Kaur’s inspired side with the help of home support, but at some point or the other along their road to the elusive silverware, they will have to contend with seven-time winners and defending champions, Australia.

FORMULA 1

FOUR YEARS AGO, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, the sport’s only black driver in history, had equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of seven Driver’s Championships and the record-breaking eighth title only seemed a mere formality. But Hamilton’s quest for unequivocal greatness was brought to a halt by the rise of Max Verstappen, with four driver’s titles in a row for Red Bull. In order to correct that, 40-year-old Hamilton has switched allegiances, as he will be seen in Ferrari’s scarlet cockpit next season, once occupied by Schumacher himself at the turn of the century.

The last time Hamilton followed in Schumacher’s footsteps, by replacing him at Mercedes in a shock move from McLaren, he won six championships in the space of seven years. Could he be the one to break Verstappen’s hold? Possibly, but don’t rule out a breakthrough season from McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who helped their team clinch the Constructors’ Champion­ship in the very last race of the 2024 season.

cricketForecast 2025Formula 1Lewis HamiltonNovak DjokovicRishabh PantRohit Sharmasporttennis