Good news for cricket lovers. After the Champions Trophy, IPL 2025 is going to start from Saturday 22 March. The first match will be between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Just a few more hours... The biggest league in cricket history is going to start. Yes, after the Champions Trophy, IPL 2025 is going to start from 22 March. The first match will be between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. This time both the teams will be on the field with their new captain. The command of the Kolkata team is in the hands of experienced Ajinkya Rahane, while Rajat Patidar, who made a mark with his batting in the last season, will be seen leading Royal Challengers Bangalore this time.

RCB's batting is strong

Royal Challengers Bangalore's team under the leadership of Rajat Patidar looks quite balanced. Talking about the team's batting, they have run machine Virat Kohli, who will be seen batting first this season too to give the team a good start. Along with him, Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma and captain Rajat Patidar will be there to strengthen the batting order. Rajat Patidar has so far been seen playing in the role of a finisher in the team in the last seasons. He has played some such innings on the basis of which the management of Royal Challengers Bangalore decided to give him the command of the team this time.

Team ready to create history

If Royal Challengers Bangalore manages to win the IPL 2025 title under the captaincy of Rajat Patidar, then it will become history for him and his team. Rajat Patidar will become the first captain under whose leadership the team will win the final. From Virat Kohli till now, many players have been given the command of the team. But, the team has not yet tasted winning the final. The team is confident that under the leadership of the new captain, the team will not only perform well but will also be a strong contender to win the title.

This trio will take charge of bowling

Royal Challengers Bangalore has been a strong team in batting every season. The team has also scored 200 plus while batting first many times. But, due to weak bowling, the team had to lose many important matches. Due to which the team was also out of the playoff race. However, this time the team has a balanced bowling order. The team will have the trio of experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood along with Indian fast bowler Yash Dayal this season. Apart from this, Krunal Pandya, Liam Livingstone, Tim David will be seen bowling a spell of 4 overs in the field of spin.

These players can become the X factor

Tim David and Jitesh Sharma can play the role of X factor for the team. The story of these two is like one lion and the other one and a quarter lion. Both these players have won matches for their respective teams in the previous seasons of IPL on the basis of their lethal batting. Royal Challengers Bangalore will expect him to play a match-winning innings this season. Jitesh Sharma has often been seen that he does not hesitate while hitting a big shot. At the same time, Tim David has played many stormy innings while being in Mumbai Indians.

Patidar will have a litmus test

Let us tell you that Rajat Patidar has emerged as a very aggressive batsman in the last season. However, this season he has to not only bat well but also lead the team. How he will bat under the pressure of captaincy, the whole picture will be clear in the coming days. Patidar's litmus test is going to be against Kolkata in the first match. If we look at Patidar's IPL career, he played a brilliant innings of 112 runs in 54 balls against Lucknow in the year 2022. This performance of Patidar has brought him to the fore as an aggressive player this season. He was the third-highest run-scorer for Bengaluru in the tournament. Patidar scored 333 runs at a strike rate of 152.75.