Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals (RR) square off in Match 6 of IPL 2025 in Guwahati on Wednesday. KKR and RR have a lot to ponder after suffering heavy defeats in their tournament openers, against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). The game at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium will be a historic one, as for the first time ever in IPL, Guwahati’s very own Riyan Parag will lead RR in his hometown. Parag’s first game in charge of RR ended in a heavy 44-run loss to SRH last Sunday.
Guwahati has been RR’s alternative home ground since IPL 2023, but they’ve found little joy at the venue, losing two of three completed matches so far.
Just like RR, KKR too were blown away under a new captain, Ajinkya Rahane. While Rahane did come to the party with his bat, he found himself out of options when the bowlers were leaking runs.
RR and KKR were also slated to face off at the same venue last year but the match was washed out due to rain.
As per the head-to-head stats, the two teams have played each other 30 times in the IPL, with the Royals and the Knight Riders winning 14 each. Two matches ended in no results.
Jofra Archer leaked a record-breaking 76 runs in his four-over quota against SRH. RR might replace him with someone like a Wanindu Hasaranga.
KKR, on the other hand, will also keep an eye on the fitness of Anrich Nortje, who is recovering from a back strain. If the South African gets a green signal from the physios, then he will walk in for Spencer Johnson.
KKR’s Predicted XI vs RR: Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Impact player: Angkrish Raghuvanshi
RR’s Predicted XI vs KKR: Yashasvi Jaiswal,
Impact Player: Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag (capt), Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Tushar Deshpande.
Impact Player: Sanju Samson
(With Agency Inputs)
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