Kolkata Knight Riders are all set to begin their IPL 2025 season with the opening match against the Royal Challengers Benglaluru at the Eden Gardens stadium from today. KKR – the defending champions – will have a point to prove under a new captain (Ajinkya Rahane) but with largely the same setup. Incidentally, this will also be the first match to be played after all the new rule changes implemented by the BCCI.
BCCI’s new rule changes:
Ahead of IPL 2025, the BCCI has made a number of changes to the tournament’s rules, including reinstating the use of saliva on the ball, making provision for a new ball in the event of dew, expanding the scope of DRS and scrapping the policy of banning captains for slow over rates.
Of these, the BCCI’s reinstatement of the saliva rule and provision for a new ball after the first 10 overs has made the most headlines. While Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer Mohammed Shami applauded the BCCI for bringing back the saliva rule, KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy feels it won’t make much difference.
Varun Chakravarty on IPL Saliva rule:
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the KKR vs RCB match, Varun said,”I do not think that’s going to make much difference regarding the saliva,”
Meanwhile, the mystery spinner did hail the ball change rule in case of dew, stating that it could help spinners and soon after the ball is changed it will likely be given to a spinner.
“The dew part where you can change the ball might help the spinners and the moment they change the ball, the 11th, 12th and 13th [overs] it could be a spinner bowling because the ball would not be that wet. So that change is what I am forecasting here. That’s what I can see,” Chakravarthy said at the presser.
Chakravarthy excited for Virat challenge:
Speaking in the same pre-match presser, Chakravarthy shared his excitement on bowling to veteran RCB batter and former India captain Virat Kohli.
“Definitely excited to be coming up against Virat. Obviously, he has batted well against me, and I would like to do well against him also,” the KKR bowler added.
