Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Preview & Prediction | IPL 2025 | League Stage
Click here for today’s sports betting tips from our expert analysts!
Both these two teams are coming off the back of chastening defeats in their respective opening games.
Date & time: Wednesday March 26th 2025: USA PT – 7:00am / USA ET – 10:00am / UK – 2:00pm
Venue: Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati, India
Weather: Sunshine to start play, before clear skies later and light winds as temperatures drop below 30c.
How to watch: USA – Willow TV / UK – Sky Sports & Sky Go / Australia – Foxtel
Rajasthan Royals Preview: Bowlers demolished
The Rajasthan Royals bowlers were put to the sword by Sunrisers Hyderabad last time out, the latter racking up 286/6 across 20 overs. Such a total was well out of Rajasthan’s reach but they did manage to record 242/6 in reply. Ultimately though, the match was lost with the ball, Jofra Archer’s figures ending up particularly damning. 0-76 across four overs at an average of 19 runs per over are the most expensive figures in IPL history.
Kolkata Knight Riders Preview: Reigning champs start slowly
Kolkata Knight Riders lacked potency from a bowling point of view when defending 174/8 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. They allowed RCB openers Phil Salt and Virat Kohli to get away, which proved their undoing in the end, allowing the visitors to easily chase down their victory target with wickets and overs in hand. Now the pressure is on KKR to respond strongly.
Rajasthan Royals Betting Analysis
Whilst he may have proven expensive like the rest of his teammates, domestic player Tushar Deshpande lived up to his wicket-taking reputation with three scalps, the most on the Royals team. He has pace but also excellent variations which makes him a consistent threat with the ball. Consider backing Deshpande to accumulate over 1.5 match wickets for the second game running.
Kolkata Knight Riders Betting Analysis
New KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane started the 2025 IPL strongly with the bat, even if his side fell to defeat. The experienced Rahane struck 56 from 31 balls against RCB, including four maximums. If KKR are to retain their title this season, they’ll need Rahane to maintain a high level of performance across the entire tournament and after a good start, he’s well worth backing to register 30+ runs in this one.
Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Expert Prediction
Whilst it may be early days, all signs point to Rajasthan Royals having downgraded from a bowling perspective compared to last year. The likes of Trent Boult and Ravichandran Ashwin were badly missed, whilst big names like Fazalhaq Farooqi and Jofra Archer badly underperformed. Kolkata Knight Riders could be the next team to take advantage and must be confident of inflicting further misery upon the Rajasthan bowling unit.
The Royals should match KKR on the batting front, but their inferior bowling attack on paper may well prove their undoing for the second game running this season. This makes backing Rahane’s men the way to go here.
Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Top Tip: Kolkata Knight Riders to win
