IPL turns 18: Franchises’s promos and fan-engagement: smart reels, lousy puns, BGMs in captain’s mother tongue and movie characters | Ipl News

Trying to woo returned astronaut Sunita Williams to become their team fan. Launching a charm offensive of Rishabh Pant so Lucknow stops pining after KL Rahul. The comedian Mr Nags accosting Yash Dayal, asking him if he’s scared to bowl at the doomed Chinnaswamy. Struggling to find the third apt character to form the Thala – Thalapathy trinity with Ruturaj Gaikwad, and settling for a Hindi movie, in a first-ever for Chennai. A garba tutorial to cheer for 4s and 6s. Roping in local comedians as influencers. And a desperate attempt to get Hyderabad to love Travis Head’s moustache, even as the ‘stache gathers a hate-base from a Team India hangover.These, and other smart reel edits, lousy puns, welcome BGMs in captain’s mother tongue and slow-mo action teaser clips that are sleeper hits and viral, are the different ways in which IPL teams are trying to engage fans as the IPL turns 18.
Here’s how the 10 teams have planned their outreach.
Lucknow Super Giants go Dabangg
A video of Lance Klusener guiding Ayush Badoni to hit 6 sixes off six balls in the nets, with a softly uttered, ‘Now, six Sixes please’ took off unexpectedly, as Zulu fans went nostalgic, and teared up a tad as he almost prayed “Finish well. Finish well.” But most of LSG’s efforts are geared on rebranding Rishabh Pant as their new captain, under the tag of Rishabhpanti.
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The social media admin has been facing some baseless attacks of replying to own posts, and the neo-Lucknow style seems to be polite rudeness as fans keep urging the owners to pad up, having lost KL Rahul who has built a residue fandom.

Bollywood’s most famous UP character is reprised Nicholas Pooran aka Robin Hood Pooran who mixes Dabangg with Sholay’s Asrani jailer and gets self-deprecatory in a reel saying, “Singles this way, doubles that way, six hitter behind me”, with none left behind, pointing to the team’s concerns over lack of big hitters.
LSG have traded their in-house shaayar-influencers for riffing off Bollywood with Pooran mouthing, “Hum tumhe itne chhakke maarenge ki confuse ho jaoge boundary pe fielders khade kare ya ball boys.” But Project Pant has started out low-key with a huddle speech that was an unintended funny mix of LinkedIn meets Kennedy’s “ask not what your team management can do for you…”
A wicked pre-tournament psy-op was telling David Miller to find redemption of Champions Trophy semis loss, while batting for LSG. As if he needed telling.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore go gaga over Salt-Li
RCB continues dealing in razzmatazz of Kohli-mania with the stage lit up for their annual Unbox event, and bigger, bolder superlatives dropped into all their posts. In-house superstar comedian Mr Nags’ best gag this season was asking Yash Dayal if he feared bowling at Chinnaswamy, notorious for being unhelpful to their bowlers. The Salt-Li combo is gaining traction – where Kohli and Phil Salt will be inseparable through the season, and the Unbox event saw the franchise lean on Sanjith Hegde, a Karnataka singing sensation who crooned into the full house night. Story continues below this ad
Guerilla-edit reels of Kohli in a CSK jersey keep popping up, to build intrigue. But RCB nailed the short video clip, set to soothing music of Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowling in slo-mo, a post that got immense numbers amidst the usual RCB din of promotion overdrive. RCB socials are also building a nice little mystery around navyman and leg spinner Mohit Rathee.
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Delhi Capitals’s ‘reveal’
Captaincy reveal of Axar Patel was a long running social media thread this year. “Tu jaanta hai mera baap kaun hai?” went the Delhi-coded trope, as the second actor responded, “Haan. Ratan Kisore C Block. But tu jaanta hai DC captain koun hai?” And so it went on for a few days, with routine kalesh moments weaved into the suspense before Patel was announced. The franchise would end up revealing faces of cricket influencers Mufa and Johns too, to set the rumours straight, in the process. Inspector Abhijeet of CID fame played a bit part in the sketch. Even coach Hemang Badani’s brown book had a ‘Reveal’ clip of its own.

Bohot ho gaye leaks, ab aur nahi
Thank you, Captain Investigation Department pic.twitter.com/k2OAy9Y2IM
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) March 13, 2025
But a smart parallel engagement track is film shorts starring actor Rajesh Sharma, as a Delhi landlord Gulati obsessed with DC. Various cultural pointers like Sitaram Diwan Chand chhole bhature are woven into DC PG ka Gulati, with liberal use of ‘Paalika bazaar ka ben stokes.’ An entire series is in the making with two parts released on YouTube.
DC have multilingual content because of their owners, and given the team plays few home games at Vizag.
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Chennai Super Kings whip up Thaala mania
In a foray into the unthinkable, the Thaala (Dhoni), Thalapathy (Jadeja) Yellove trinity was completed when CSK assigned ‘Chhava’ to captain Ruturaj Gaikwad. It’s rare for CSK to dabble at Bollywood references when they have a rich mine of movie blokes of their own. Shivam Dube was dubbed Aaru (6) Saamy (famous character from Vikram movie) last, but Gaikwad has ended up with a slightly stereotyped Chhava call sign.

on L️P #WhlePodu #Yellove pic.twitter.com/TDWRLfoqNN
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 19, 2025
The most viral clip though – a 7-second tease of MS Dhoni’s short arm helicopter shot in take off. Anything Thaala is a thirst tap at Anbuden. CSK have gone easy on Tamil references, and stuck to some great training action edits with Mukesh ‘Starc’ Chaudhry in slo-mo. The franchise has upped it’s merchandise game with casual Superfan tees in white, grey&yellow. But expect Chepauk to ho plenty of miniature cardboard jerseys of players that are picking in popularity.
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Gujarat Titans turn cosmo Story continues below this ad
It’s not just CSK toning down on the local lingo. Gujarat Titans too are attempting to appear more cosmopolitan, with a lot of content in Hindi. The skipper Shubman Gill was even welcomed from the airport with Nagadas and bhangra, as fans are urged to mimic his century celebration bowing pose. However, you can’t keep them away from the dance, and garba tutorials for cheering 6s and 4s from the stands are pushed daily through socials.
Perhaps the one local meme is of Glenn Philips diving around saying ‘Catch aava de’. The franchise has released several posts featuring Mohammad Siraj as ‘Miyan magic’, and Sai Kishore with his afro hairdo at Holi has gained fans in thousands with Gujarati haikus about his hair. GT has introduced a game called ‘Hand Cricket’ like stone-paper-scissors + book cricket, and their player interviews are packaged as ‘Boomer bole toh’ pitting Gen Z vs millennials, and Car-versations. Perhaps the best experiment is mic’d up training sessions of players where they describe their shot or action.
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Mumbai Indians chill in Bhidu-mode
MI have gone full Bhidu-mode, getting in popular Bambaiya speaking actors Jackie Shroff and Upendra Limaye for their campaigns. SKY is now Surya Dada, and foreign players were introduced to Tichki shot – a typical Mumbai welcome like a carrom flick on forehead that hurts but jolts anyone into the now and present. Rap arts Srushti Tawde, Sambata, Kaam bhari have speed-talked the new street-lingo anthem. And Mitchell Santner seems to be lined up for a running gag with the in-house comedian, each time he wants coffee this whole season.
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Kolkata knight riders turn eco-friendly
The defending champions have been rather silent on their social media, though they introduced an animated detective character (don’t ask omkesh or Feluda), who will decipher the Varun Chakaravarthy mystery as the season progresses. Story continues below this ad
Biodegradable packaging of jerseys that come with ‘KKR sapling’ seeds that can be sown anywhere in India fans. (KKR social media)
Their Unplugged promo event saw the iconic Calcutta yellow taxi painted purple and rechrened Knight mobil. But the push this year is on biodegradable packaging of jerseys that come with ‘KKR sapling’ seeds that can be sown anywhere in India fans. The camera gaze has been following Anrich Nortje training in slo mo.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad glam up Head’s moustache
The TravisheKlaasen batting firepower bolstered Ishant Kishan means most of SRH fan content focuses on these with Bahubali BGMs, tossing up a puzzle of which of them might open. ‘Ishan Abhi mayhem’ was the latest speculation.
While the franchise is channeling Pat Cummins’ famous ‘Shhhhhhh’ as a warm cry, they have an uphill climb trying to get Indian fans to warm up to Travis Head, India’s multi format nemesis. His moustache is gathering a hate-base (opposite of fan base), though runs for Hyderabad should smoothen matters. There are early indications of Nitish Kumar Reddy being readied for a future captaincy role. All possible Prabhas memes are photoshopped with the NKR face.
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Punjab Kings’s Gangs of Wasseypur
The franchise, famous for having the least fan base, has put out one clever post in March to announce the schedule. It’s quite hilarious. In Wasseypur, Piyush Mishra style, it starts with how life is only about two things – “Ek badlaa, ek cricket”. It’s program for GT opening faceoff: ‘Nayaa faafda, purana lafda”.Story continues below this ad
Against Lucknow, “April fool ke din spidey ko usi ki jaal mein phasaayenge.” For SRH: “Chuppi kaptaan (Cummins) will hear roar of Punjab army.” And for KKR: “Korbo, lorbo, 2 point de bo”
Local comics Jassi & Piyush have been roped in as influencers this year.
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Rajasthan Royals coronate Sanju Chetta
It wasn’t a serious punt. But Royals admin photoshopped Sunita Williams wearing a pink jersey, for a heartfelt welcome back to earth trying to get her attention. The tweet took off, with rival fans claiming the astronaut for their own teams. RR also poached the Chhava theme, with a costumed Nitish Rana appearing in a sketch as a Maharana. RR’s Hettiecopter (Shimron Hetmyer) gif is a banger in the making, even as the early season viral post had a stump shattered into two, and admins asking who could’ve wreaked such destruction – Akash Madhwal or Joffra Archer.
However, the most effort was devoted to establishing Sanju Samson as captain as an elaborate welcome song Kesariyo Balam segued into Malayalam ivvaledhu. Other BGMs for Chettan Sanju included Telugu song Saripodhaa Sanivaaram.