17 wickets in 5 matches, Khaleel Ahmed recreating his career

Khaleel Ahmed, IPL 2025: Once badly reputed for inconsistency, Khaleel Ahmed, arguably at his career-best form, is taking wicket after wicket and chasing the purple cap in the IPL 2025. Khaleel Ahmed, now with 6 wickets in total with his name, took 2 wickets against Rajasthan Royals last night in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jofra Archer. With these couple of wickets, Ahmed is now in third place, just behind Delhi Capitals Mitchell Starc (8 wickets) and Chennai Super Kings' Noor Ahmed (9 wickets).

Khaleel Ahmed's current form begins after a fine performance in the Ranji Trophy, where he took wickets in a regular manner for team Rajasthan. In the last 5 matches, Khaleel has taken 17 wickets for his respective teams. He took 2 against Rajasthan Royals, 1 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and 3 against Mumbai Indians—6 IPL 2025 in total.

Before the beginning of the ongoing Indian Premier League, the pace bowler had a significant domestic season for Rajasthan. He claimed a total of 5 wickets against Andhra Pradesh and 6 against Vidarbha. So, in his last 5 matches, Ahmed added 17 wickets to his name. Silently but steadily, the 27-year-old left-arm pace bowler is rejuvenating his performance by adopting the pitch conditions and bowling according to the batsman. His ability to swing the ball has created a lot of attention nowadays.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Khaleel Ahmed has played 60 IPL matches so far to take 80 wickets. So far, his best IPL season was back in 2024, where he grabbed 17 wickets in 14 matches for the Delhi Capitals, with an economy rate of 9.58; in this season he has bowled with an economy rate a little below 8, which is his best economy rate so far in his IPL career. For CSK, Khaleel Ahmed is now not only taking wickets but also putting pressure on batsmen to play risky shots to rotate the strike rate, and then Ahmed strikes.