The inaugural match of the 18th edition of IPL will be played between Kolkata Knightriders and Royal Challenges Bengaluru at the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata at 1930 hrs. The two teams also played the first-ever match of IPL in 2008 where Bendon McCullum blitzed away with 158 not out and gave the jumpstart boost to the IPL. Last year the two teams met twice in the league stage with KKR coming ahead of RCB on both occasions. RCB is going in with a new captain in Rajat Patidar after letting go of Faf du Plessis and KKR too has a new but relatively experienced captain in Ajinkya Rahane after the franchise let go of their IPL winning captain in Shreyas Iyer. The players to watch out for both teams:
KKR
Andre Russell: The allrounder has been part of the KKR camp since 2014 and has played a crucial role ever since and also helped them to clinch the trophy twice in 2014 and 2024. This year Russell is back fully fit with a leaner body and will be hoping to repeat his last year's heroics where he had an excellent season with both bat and ball amassing 222 runs at 185 strike rate along with his 19 wickets and his fielding has never been in question.
Venkatesh Iyer: The Madhya Pradesh-born allrounder was acquired with a whopping sum of 23.75 cr. The price tag can be a burden and that might be the reason he wasn't overburdened with captaincy duties which most cricket experts have believed. Interestingly RCB also wanted him at the auction and were in the paddle battle against KKR for his services. The India allrounder accumulated 370 at 158 strike rate last year and will be hoping for a 500-run season as he is expected to bat in the top order this time.
Varun Chakravarty: It is very hard to be a spin bowler in a T20 game but if you have skills and accuracy as much as he has the cricket becomes easy. Alongside Sunil Narine, he formed a formidable spin attack in the tournament last year and took 21 wickets. He will be crucial for the KKR in their title defense.
RCB
Virat Kohli: King Kohli, has any name name been bigger than the man himself in last 10 years? Every year he just surprises u with consistency and when one asks will he deliver once more?, he is there in the middle answering with the bat. In the 18th season, the celebrated number 18 will hope to take the team all the way to their first trophy for RCB men.
Rajat Patidar: The captaincy duties this time have been given to the middle-order batsman. The fans of RCB are right behind him making all the right noise and he himself is coming into the tournament with fabulous performances in the domestic tournaments and leading Madhya Pradesh into the finals in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar: One of the IPL greats will ply his trade for the RCB this time round and showcase his skills at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on which he has done exceptionally well compared to others. RCB has always lacked in the bowling department and this time round the fans will hope that he will make a handy bowling partnership with Josh Hazelwood and stem the flow of runs
