The Kolkata Knight Riders, who won last year’s Indian Premier League, are ready to face off against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru this Saturday to start the season. There are performances planned for the opening ceremony, with people like Disha Patani and Shreyas Ghosal set to appear. But, there’s a worrying report out of Kolkata just a day before things kick off. The first match of the season might get completely rained out because the weather folks have issued an Orange Alert.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) says South Bengal will see thunderstorms and rain from Thursday to Sunday. For Friday, when the IPL 2025 starts, they’ve put out an Orange Alert, and there’s a Yellow Alert for Sunday.
Accuweather says there’s a 74% of rain in Kolkata on Saturday, with clouds covering about 97% of the sky. The chance of rain goes up to 90% in the evening. So, it looks like Eden Gardens will get a lot of rain on the opening day of the 18th IPL. Right now, it’s hard to tell if KKR and RCB will get to play enough of the match to get a result.
Also, one match at Eden Gardens is being moved already. The Knight Riders’ home game against the Lucknow Super Giants on April 6 will probably be played in Guwahati instead. The police can’t provide security for the IPL game because of ‘Ram Navami’ celebrations in the city that day, CAB president Snehasish Ganguly told PTI.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said that over 20,000 processions are being organized across West Bengal to celebrate the festival. Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Ganguly told PTI, We told the BCCI to change the match date, but there’s no way to reschedule it in the city later. Now, I’m hearing it’s going to be moved to Guwahati.
The game between KKR and LSG, owned by RPSG Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka, was expected to have a full crowd, since both teams have lots of local fans.
