Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a minor injury for RCB, who picked Yash Dayal, and handed caps to Phil Salt and Tim David
Toss Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) opt to bowl vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Just like 17 years ago at the first-ever IPL match, RCB won the toss and asked KKR to bat first with rain and dew not ruled out at the IPL 2025 opener. RCB were hopeful of not allowing a repeat of a blowout on that night when Brendon McCullum set the tournament alight. This was the first time these two teams were kicking off the IPL season since 2008.
Defending champions KKR had a new captain, and wore a new look, with at least the official team sheet not slating Sunil Narine as the opening batter. Wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock and left-arm quick Spencer Johnson made their KKR debuts, edging out Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Anrich Nortje, who was nevertheless named in the list of substitutes. Whether KKR were going to open with Narine was going to be revealed in earnest.
RCB’s new captain, Rajat Patidar, got off to an auspicious start, calling correctly at the toss. He didn’t quite remember the names of the possible Impact Players, but made what is expected to be the beneficial call in evening games in T20 cricket: chase. However, there was a new aid for the sides defending – a ball change they can claim after the tenth over of the second innings.
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt) 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 5 Venkatesh Iyer, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Varun Chakaravarthy, 11 Spencer Johnson/Anrich Nortje, 12 Vaibhav Arora
Substitutes: Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar (capt), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Rasikh Salam, 9 Josh Hazlewood, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Suyash Sharma
Substitutes: Devdutt Padikkal, Abhinandan Singh, Manj Bhandage, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh
