New Delhi, March 21 The stage is set for the blockbuster 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the tournament opener at Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Both teams will start their campaign under the new leaderships, with Ajinkya Rahane captaining Kolkata while Rajat Patidar is holding the baton for RCB.
Apart from the captaincy reshuffle, the two squads have a complete different lookout after the last year's mega auction in Jeddah.
KKR will be hoping for a strong start of their title defense while Patidar-led RCB eye to bury past demons this time around. It will also be a spectular sight for home fans to watch Indian stalwart Virat Kohli in the T20 format for the first time after announcing his retirement from the shortest format following the T20 World Cup title win last year.
Both teams have squared off 34 times in the IPL history, with KKR holding an edge with 20 wins. The last five games between the two sides were shifted towards Kolkata's favour as they won on four occasions. RCB's last win against KKR came in the IPL 2022 season.
All you need to know about the IPL 2025 opening clash:
When: Saturday, March 22
Where: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Time: The match will begin at 7:30 pm IST, with the toss scheduled for 7 pm.
Live Streaming: The match will be broadcast live on the Star Sports Network and streamed live on the JioHotstar app and website.
Squads:
KKR squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Venkatesh Iyer (vice-captain), Quinton de Kock (wk), Rovman Powell (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Luvnith Sisodia (wk), Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Spencer Johnson, Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Umran Malik, Varun Chakravarthy.
RCB squad: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethel, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.
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