IPL 2025 Opening Ceremony Highlights: Kohli receives special memento from BCCI after shaking a leg with SRK

That is followed by the Indian national anthem, which then concludes the IPL 2025 opening ceremony. With that, it’s time for first toss of the 18th season to take place!

Head over to our **KKR vs RCB match live blog** to follow the latest updates on the opening game of the season.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 🎶

Shreya Ghoshal’s mesmerizing voice lights up the #TATAIPL 2025 opening ceremony! ⭐#KKRvRCB | @shreyaghoshal pic.twitter.com/cDM8OpOIP3

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 22, 2025

𝘔𝘦𝘩𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘻𝘪 𝘬𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘺𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘬𝘩𝘶𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘪! 💜😍

Watch LIVE action: https://t.co/iB1oqMusYv #IPLonJioStar 👉 #KKRvRCB, LIVE NOW on Star Sports Network & JioHotstar! pic.twitter.com/BNCAKKj93j

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 22, 2025

“We are here at the City of Joy Kolkata!” says the ‘Badshah’ of Bollywood, who is among the most recognised Indians in the world today.

“Let’s begin the celebrations like never before! IPL 18!” he adds.

Preparations are in full swing for the opening ceremony, which is set to begin at 6:00 PM at the Eden Gardens. There are pictures coming in from fans, who are present at the ground.

NOW EDEN GARDEN IS READY FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY OF TATA IPL 2025 🏆

- #IPL2025 #KKRvsRCB pic.twitter.com/iG2EYWgI3e

— The Ajay Cric (@TheCric_AJAY) March 22, 2025

There were eight teams then. There are ten now. There were hundreds of crores involved then, there are thousands of crores involved now. There were eleven players (per team) playing then, there are twelve in each side in every game now. Whichever metric you use, the IPL has only gotten bigger and better.

Shashwat Kumar reflects on the IPL’s incredible growth since its inception in 2008, which has helped India surge ahead of Australia and England to become the most powerful cricketing nation in the world. ( **READ MORE** )

Here’s how the Faf du Plessis-led RCB had fared in the IPL last year, en route to their third title:

22 March, Chennai: Lost to CSK by 6 runs

25 March, Bengaluru: Defeated PBKS by 4 wickets

29 March, Bengaluru: Lost to KKR by 7 wickets

2 April, Bengaluru: Lost to LSG by 28 runs

6 April, Jaipur: Lost to RR by 6 wickets

11 April, Mumbai: Lost to MI by 7 wickets

15 April, Bengaluru: Lost to SRH by 25 runs

21 April, Kolkata: Lost to KKR by 1 run

25 April, Hyderabad: Defeated SRH by 35 runs

4 May, Bengaluru: Defeated GT by 4 wickets

9 May, Dharamsala: Defeated PBKS by 60 runs

12 May, Bengaluru: Defeated DC by 47 runs

18 May, Bengaluru: Defeated CSK by 27 runs

22 May, Ahmedabad (Eliminator): Lost to RR by 4 wickets

From Virat Kohli winning a trophy to a 1,000 runs being scored in a single season by a batter and a 300-plus total being posted by a team, we take a look at some of the feats that have eluded the IPL since it came into existence in 2008 – incidentally with a meeting between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

A few of these milestones, however, could be achieved this season the way the league is rapidly evolving with each passing year. ( **READ MORE** )

Eden Gardens has been quite the batting paradise in recent years, the best example of which was the freak game between KKR and PBKS last year in which the latter ended up chasing down a target of 262!

While a score in the range of 180-190 should be par for today’s game, how Virat Kohli and the rest of the RCB batters handle Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine will ultimately decide how successful they are on this wicket.

Looks like the opening ceremony and the season-opening match between KKR and RCB might go ahead as planned, looking at the weather in Kolkata at the moment.

Kolkata weather update - Dry af
Easy 2 points today ✅ pic.twitter.com/gqdW6VXitH

— Abhyudaya Mohan (@AbhyudayaMohan) March 22, 2025

Here’s how the Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders had fared in the IPL last year, en route to their third title:

23 March, Kolkata: Defeated SRH by 4 runs

29 March, Bengaluru: Defeated RCB by 7 wickets

3 April, Visakhapatnam: Defeated DC by 106 runs

8 April, Chennai: Lost to CSK by 7 wickets

14 April, Kolkata: Defeated LSG by 8 wickets

16 April, Kolkata: Lost to RR by 2 wickets

21 April, Kolkata: Defeated RCB by 1 run

26 April, Kolkata: Lost to PBKS by 8 wickets

29 April, Kolkata: Defeated DC by 7 wickets

3 May, Mumbai: Defeated MI by 24 runs

5 May, Lucknow: Defeated LSG by 98 runs

11 May, Kolkata: Defeated MI by 18 runs (DLS Method)

13 May, Ahmedabad: Match vs GT abandoned without toss

19 May, Guwahati: Match vs RR abandoned without toss

21 May, Ahmedabad (Qualifier 1): Defeated SRH by 8 wickets

26 May, Chennai (Final): Defeated SRH by 8 wickets to win IPL 2025!

In case you forgot, it was a lopsided meeting between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru 17 summers ago that kickstarted the revolutionary Indian Premier League.

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar recalls former New Zealand captain and current England head coach Brendon McCullum’s explosive 158 at the Chinnaswamy that gave fans a taste of what was in store for them in the years to come:

Sunil Gavaskar recalls the iconic moment when @Bazmccullum cCullum’s explosive innings set the stage for a new era in T20 cricket, also highlighting how the IPL has since raised the standards, with high-scoring games that push the limits..#IPLonJioStar 👉 SEASON OPENER… pic.twitter.com/SJeND6HaUM

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 22, 2025

Kolkata Knight Riders had pulled off a season double against Royal Challengers Bengaluru last season en route to winning their third title.

KKR had handed RCB a seven-wicket thrashing with more than three overs to spare at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium as Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 83 off 59 balls went in vain.

RCB put up a much better fight in their second meeting at the Eden Gardens, nearly chasing down the 223-run target set by Shreyas Iyer’s side only to fall short by one run in the end.

Ahead of Match 1 of the 2025 Indian Premier League between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, we take a look at their head-to-head record starting with the first-ever IPL match – at the Chinnaswamy on 18 April, 2008:

Matches Played: 34

KKR Wins: 20

RCB Wins: 14

Tied/No Result: 0

Last 5 Matches:

KKR Wins: 4

RCB Wins: 1

No Result: 0

Ahead of Match 1 of IPL 2025 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, we take a look at the likely playing XIIs (playing XI+’Impact Player’) for the two teams:

KKR: Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock/Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Anrich Nortje, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mayank Markande/Anukul Roy

RCB: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt (wk), Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Tim David, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Dar

Here are the squads from which KKR and RCB will pick their playing XIs as well as their ‘Impact Player’:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Manish Pandey, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Rovman Powell, Anukul Roy, Mayank Markande, Chetan Sakariya, Luvnith Sisodia

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Liam Livingstone, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Swapnil Singh, Lungi Ngidi, Romario Shepherd, Manoj Bhandage, Rasikh Dar Salam, Nuwan Thushara, Jacob Bethell, Suyash Sharma, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh

The 18th season of the Indian Premier League, which includes Saturday’s opening ceremony as well as the KKR-RCB match in Kolkata, will be telecast on the Star Sports and Sports 18 channels.

Additionally, viewers can also tune into the live stream of the game on the JioHotstar mobile application and website.