Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders open their title defence in the Indian Premier League 2025 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 22. While two teams are gearing up for their opening fixture, they are also keeping an eye on the sky.
There is a rain threat in Kolkata on March 22 and it has been raining in the city for the last couple of days. The practice session on the eve of the game at Eden Gardens was cut short due to a drizzle.
On Saturday, i.e. the opening day of the tournament, dark clouds loomed large over the Kolkata skies. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued an orange alert for Kolkata and the surrounding regions. Ahead of the season opener, here is the weather report of Kolkata for the match day.
According to Accuweather, there is a 90% chance of precipitation in mthe orning with the sky expected to be cloudy. According to the latest update, the weather forecast relaxes down in the afternoon and in the evening too.
There is only a 1% probability of showers in the afternoon with sky expected to be cloudy once again. The probability rises up marginally in evening with 4% precipitation predicted during that time. It seems that the weather has cleared up and we might get a full match.
KKR and RCB have faced each other 34 times in IPL with Kolkata having the wood over Bengaluru. Kolkata lead the head-to-head record with 20-14. This is the first time that KKR and RCB are facing each other in the opening match of an IPL since kicking off the tournament in the inaugural edition in 2008.
KKR's Probable XII:
Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
RCB's Probable XII:
Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma/Rasikh Dar Salam