The new season of the Indian Premier League gets underway at Eden Gardens on Saturday when the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders get their title defence up and running when they host the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a heavyweight IPL 2025 opener.
Both these teams will know that there is one expectation on them this season – to come away with the title. Kolkata will be looking to be the first team since Mumbai Indians in 2020 to retain the title. Bangalore are looking to win it for the first time.
Kolkata Knight Riders
The Kolkata Knight Riders had a memorable season last term to get their hands back on the golden trophy at the end of it and they will be out for a repeat here. The big thing for the Knight Riders will be whether Sunil Narine is in the form with the bat to replicate his 488 runs and whether Andre Russell has enough about him to chip in with something close to the 19 wickets he picked up last term. If they can go well again then Kolkata will put up a solid title defence.
This will be a Kolkata side under new leadership though with Ajinkya Rahane transferred in to skipper the side and a rejigged batting order will need to hit the ground running but should that happen then you would imagine Kolkata will be tough to beat here, especially if the rain stays away in the lead up to the game to allow their spinners the chance to grip the ball and do their thing. At their top form, Kolkata look a dangerous side but we need to see whether those players are in top form first.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
It is quite incredible that the Royal Challengers Bangalore still haven’t got their hands on the Indian Premier League trophy. You would like to argue that they are getting closer to doing it but in truth that isn’t the case. The pressure will be on Rajar Patidar to be the man to step up and lead the Royal Challengers to success this season. He isn’t going to lack for batting power in his side but whether they have enough with the ball to get the job done will be the interesting thing.
I guess when half of your matches are at the Chinnaswamy it makes sense to focus on strengthening the batting power rather than worrying about how good your bowling attack is on a ground where it is likely to go the distance anyway but when they are away from the Chinnaswamy it will be interesting to see what they can offer. The obvious thing to say about Bangalore is they are going to be a whole lot more dangerous when they are chasing a target rather than setting one.
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Key Players
Given the strength of the Royal Challengers Bangalore batting unit you would imagine that the four overs which will be bowled by Varun Chakaravarthy could be crucial to the outcome of the match for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Virat Kohli had a wonderful Champions Trophy campaign earlier in the month and the Orange Cap winner from last season will be looked upon by his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate as someone who needs to go well for them this term.
Betting
It is hard to see anything but a high scoring opening match here largely because of the makeup of the Royal Challengers Bangalore outfit. They have power to burn with the bat and depth to go with it but you couldn’t say that is the same with the ball, especially if Josh Hazlewood doesn’t deliver the goods up top. Kolkata have the better bowling unit and in time I expect them to finish higher up the table as a result of that but here this one is screaming runs at me.
The run line for this one is 355.5 which is high enough to put people off the longer this competition goes on but with the season wanting to be launched in style I expect this to be covered. We had six scores of over 200 on this ground last season and another of those here reduces this total dramatically. Both these sides have plenty of batting depth and the bowlers are probably going to need a run in the conditions. Add in the Impact Player and the recent trend of high scoring IPL games should continue here.
Tips
Back Over 355.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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