New Delhi: Imagine the ignominy of being perennial laggards, the heartbreak of repeated failed campaigns, the taunts and ridicules on social media from fans of opposing teams, who rubbed it in at every opportunity.
Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru now have an opportunity to end all that after 18 years of suffering. Impressive campaigns have led them to the final of IPL 2025 and one more win could lead to them stepping into the unknown territory of being champions.
But both teams would also know that there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. RCB have lost in the title round on all three of their earlier attempts, PBKS have faltered twice.
Kohli and Shreyas, the key players
Which is why they would need all the experience and guile of their veteran pros in Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer.
Kohli has had yet another successful campaign with 614 runs so far but he would happily trade all those runs for the trophy this time.
All those runs the former skipper has scored for RCB wasn’t enough for them to win so this time it would probably neeed a greater effort from him this time around.
His opening partnership with the explosive Phil Salt could build the momentum of RCB’s innings, which is capitalised by Mayank Agarwal, skipper Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma, with Tim David and Romario Shepherd putting the finishing touches in the death overs.
Josh Hazlewood’s unflinching line and length has fetched him 21 wickets so far and the Aussie seamer would want to make an imprint on the final too.
Like Patidar, Iyer is also captaining Punjab for the first time after his big-bucks signing. But unlike Patidar, he isn’t a new captain.
He is now the only cricketer to have taken three different teams into the final now and that is no accident but speaks of his leadership ability.
With 603 runs in 16 innings, it is also Iyer’s most productive season as a batter, which also signifies no burden of captaincy on his batting.
Captain’s Photoshoot – ✅😎
Pre-match Press Conference – ✅🎙
All eyes 👀 on #TATAIPL Final tomorrow ⌛#RCBvPBKS | #Final | #TheLastMile | @RCBTweets | @PunjabKingsIPL pic.twitter.com/tGdWKbZUhp
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) June 2, 2025
After his match-winning 87-run knock in Punjab’s win against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2, head coach Ricky Ponting would want more of the same in the final.
But not only Iyer, Punjab would need Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis, Priyansh Arya and Shashank Singh to contribute while sans Marcus Jansen the bowling line-up would need Yuvendra Chahal to shake off his hand injury and be at his best.
Teams (from):
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Phil Salt (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Liam Livingstone, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Manoj Bhandage, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Salam Dar, Suyash Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee, Yash Dayal.
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod (wk), Josh Inglis (wk), Harnoor Pannu, Pyla Avinash, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Harpreet Brar, Azmatullah Omarzai, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Mitch Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Kuldeep Sen, Xavier Bartlett, Pravin Dubey, Kyle Jamieson.
Match begins at 7:30pm IST
Live on Star Sports Network and jiohotstar
Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will battle for their maiden title in the final of IPL 2025 Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
