When the IPL resumes on Saturday after an eight-day hiatus, he won’t have the same luck or control over the events at a location where the partisan audience will arrive with increased enthusiasm. After leaving Test cricket with a brief Instagram post during this inactive week, Kohli will now receive a heartfelt tribute from the RCB supporters, who intend to show up in white.
Virat Kohli joined the batting group for a hit on Friday, over an hour and a half into RCB’s practice at the Chinnaswamy stadium. After a few sharp pull strokes and straight drives, play paused for a moment. He was not content. Even though the stadium was deserted, the RCB team song was playing on the sound system as he arrived to the practice pitch. He expressed his frustration to enough people nearby to turn it off and bring back the quiet, punctuated by the sound of the bat hitting the ball and background chatter.
The fact that RCB’s supporters consistently raise the roof here is demonstrated by their two victories in five home games; year after year, they have shown unyielding consistency in their unapologetic support. Since RCB is comfortably occupying second place, many of them must be experiencing deja vu as the excitement for the first title rises once more. Emotions in the home section will undoubtedly soar to new heights as they laud Kohli and his Test career and enthusiastically support the side in hopes of winning three straight at home to guarantee a postseason berth.
The inconsistency of the Kolkata Knight Riders this season has denied their fans, who are capable of such intensity, these pleasures. With the satisfying conclusion of the previous season, they were taken off the emotional roller coaster and put on a rollercoaster of utter annoyance. The euphoria of winning a third title in May of last year was followed by the depressing disappointment of not winning two straight until late April of this year. Even if they end their campaign with two straight victories, it is still on the thinnest of threads and could collapse.
When: May 17, 7:30 PM IST, RCB vs. KKR, IPL 2025
Where: Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium
Expect a start-stop game and thunderstorms. There will be showers on Saturday night, but assuming they are brief and not persistent, the venue’s spotless drainage system should guarantee that a game, whether shortened or not, takes place. Rain was predicted on Friday night as well, but it avoided this area of the city.
Head-to-head: KKR 15–20 RCB. KKR has won eight of the twelve games played here. KKR has won four of their last five games since 2023.
Team Observation
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Rajat Patidar batted for two days prior to the match due to injuries and unavailability. The brief season break aided in the recovery of Patidar’s hand injury received during the team’s most recent home game against CSK, according to Mo Bobat, director of cricket for RCB. Phil Salt, who missed the previous two games due to sickness, also batted for extended periods of time and recovered well.
The only RCB player who hasn’t joined the team is Josh Hazlewood, who is still recovering in Australia from a shoulder ailment.
Strategies & Matchups: This season, Ajinkya Rahane has been outstanding in the PowerPlay, amassing 223 runs at a strike rate of 187.39. Patidar would be tempted to throw Bhuvneshwar Kumar at him if he gets there early. Rahane has been dismissed seven times by the veteran fast bowler, who has only given up 104 runs from 117 deliveries.
Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell/Mayank Agarawal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam/Lungi Ngidi, Yash Dayal, and Suyash Sharma are the probable XII.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Rovman Powell and Moeen Ali have not returned to the team for the resumption due to injuries or unavailability. Mooen may be replaced by Anukul Roy, who participated in KKR’s last two games. Anukul could provide Ajinkya Rahane with some crucial overs of left-arm spin against the right-handed heavy top-order of the RCB.
In KKR’s last match, Manish Pandey had taken Venkatesh Iyer’s spot. A middle-order berth could still be up for grabs between the two, who both spent a lot of time in the nets on Friday.
Matchups and Tactics: Kohli’s scoring rate against spin has significantly improved recently [108.2 in 2020–23 and 136.34 in 2024–25], paving the way for an exciting encounter with two of the league’s top teams from KKR. In the IPL, he has scored 136 runs against Narine, but with a strike rate of only 105.42 and has been dismissed four times. With 55 off 48 and one dismissal, such figures are just slightly better than Varun CV’s.
As the season has gone on this year, Patidar has slowed considerably against spin. He had only managed 33 off 35 in the last five games, going out three times, after hitting 57 off 33 against them in the season’s opening four games.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey/Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Varun CV, Harshit Rana, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk) are likely to be in position XII.
Were you aware?
In IPL 2025, KKR has the lowest boundary percentage (13.11), the greatest economy rate (7.41), and the best dot ball percentage (35.9).
In the IPL 2025, Varun CV has taken 10 wickets in the middle overs, which is tied for second place with Kuldeep Yadav.
With a scoring rate of 11.97 in the final overs (16–20), RCB has been the most damaging batting team.
What they stated:
“Virat Kohli is going about his daily routine as normal. He doesn’t want any more of the nation’s and the public’s focus on him; it’s enough. All he wants to do is go about his business. He typically has high expectations for what we can accomplish with RCB this season, and he delivers on them.” On Virat Kohli, Mo Bobat said.
“I simply believe that we were winning games the last time [in 2024], and we won a lot of games, which is crucial in a competition like the IPL. We were losing one and won one this time. That’s how the entire tournament has been. Manish Pandey discusses the problems facing the reigning champions, KKR.
India
