IPL 2025: Weather concerns over the much-awaited season opener between KKR and RCB
Kolkata: The much-awaited season opening of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will be hampered by weather as the ‘City of Joy’ has had a decent quantity of overnight rain.
The weather in Kolkata is still unknown, with gloomy conditions anticipated for most of the day and sporadic showers likely, especially during match hours, despite the sun making a short cameo around noon, hence bolstering expectations for an unbroken play. ESPNcricinfo.
The “orange alert” the Indian Meteorological Department issued on Friday for Gangetic West Bengal indicated the potential of ongoing rain in the area. In the days before the season started, Kolkata had had continuous, albeit not especially strong, rains.
The weather has already interfered with plans; rain shortened Friday’s training sessions for both teams. A KKR intra-squad practice match was canceled earlier in the week after only one innings; moderate rain also disrupted Wednesday and Thursday training practices.
The long-awaited collision at Eden Gardens is set for a 7:00 PM throw, then a 7:30 PM start. The league stage regulations of the IPL permit a one-hour extension, so midnight must mark the completion of at least a five-overs-a-side game. Should weather cause the game to be canceled, both teams will split one point each.
After this game, reigning champions KKR will fly to Guwahati to take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) on March 26; RCB will move to Chennai for a clash against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 28.
To heighten the enthusiasm, an opening ceremony is scheduled before the toss, thereby preparing the ground for what seems to be yet another exciting IPL season.
The first IPL game in 2008 when Brendon McCullum struck a remarkable knock of 158 runs for KKR against the same opponent, has come back to haunt memory.
Both teams start the season under different leadership. Rajat Patidar leads RCB; Ajinkya Rahane has replaced KKR’s captain. Breaking its four-match losing run against KKR excites RCB. The game is supposed to revolve mostly around spin bowling. Supported by Moeen Ali and Anukul Roy, KKR claims a seasoned spin assault with Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
Conversely, Krunal Pandya oversees RCB’s spin division with help from Swapnil Singh, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, and young spinner Suyash Sharma, a former KKR player in 2023. Both clubs’ batting line-ups also provide an interesting challenge. Among RCB’s explosive batsmen are Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, and Jitesh Sharma.
KKR’s batting order consists of Quinton de Kock, Rinku Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, and Venkatesh Iyer in the meantime.
KKR Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer (vc), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Quinton de Kock (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia (wk), Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson.
RCB Squad: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Swastik Chikara, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Philip Salt, Manoj Bhandage, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Liam Livingstone, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Mohit Rathee, Abhinandan Singh.
