Indian Premier League betting tips: Outright preview and KKR vs RCB opener

Franchise cricket tournaments do not get any bigger than the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the juggernaut rolls into town for its 18th edition this weekend with 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opening the competition against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the iconic Eden Gardens.

For KKR, it was their third title but their first since 2014 and they will now be aiming to become the first team to successfully defend their IPL crown since Mumbai Indians went back to back in 2020 and 2021. 

RCB begin another campaign still looking for their elusive first title with Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants the only other teams from the 10-strong field yet to lift the trophy.

Across the next two months, there will be 74 matches with the final on 25 May back in Kolkata where this IPL begins. And with reports emerging over the weekend of a new Saudi-backed four-part ‘grand-slam’ franchise cricket tournament appearing on the calendar, expect the IPL to respond with more hype, more noise and more razzmatazz than ever before!

The favourites

In many sports, finishing bottom of the table during the previous season would see a team as one of the underdogs ahead of a new campaign but not in the IPL. Mumbai Indians won just four of their 14 fixtures in 2024 yet begin this weekend as the favourites to win the tournament.

But a quick look at how recent champions have fared the year before makes their status as favourites not quite as outlandish as first viewed. 

KKR turned successive seventh-placed finishes in 2022 and 2023 into a title in 2024, while Chennai Super Kings (CSK) went from placing seventh (out of eight) in 2020 and ninth (out of 10) in 2022 to winning the IPL in 2021 and 2023.

Similarly, reaching the final but ending the tournament as runners-up has never preceded an IPL title in any of the last 16 seasons. So Sunrisers Hyderabad, who were thrashed by KKR by eight wickets in the last act of the 2023 competition, will be looking to create history of their own.

FIRST’s top tips

Punjab Kings to reach the final - 5/1 with Highbet

With only a semi-final appearance in 2008 and a lost final to KKR in 2014, it would be no exaggeration to describe Punjab Kings as one of the worst-performing sides across the history of the IPL.

But with the squad undergoing a huge refresh of personnel, as well as bringing in Ricky Ponting as coach, this could well be their year to step up.

Shreyas Iyer, who led KKR to the title 10 months ago, has been recruited as captain and he has plenty of white ball specialists at his disposal from Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal and Prabhsimran Singh.

Punjab Kings have finished fifth or lower in 15 of 17 IPL campaigns, but we foresee a huge improvement in 2025.

FIRST’s value picks

Travis Head top tournament batsman - 12/1 with Mr.Play

There is very little that Travis Head has touched which hasn’t turned to gold over the past 24 months. The left-handed opener will be bringing his brand of unorthodox, but mightily effective batting to the IPL once again this year.

With a strike-rate of 191.55, the Australian bludgeoned 567 runs at an average of 40.50 in the 2023 tournament, numbers which propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to the final and saw Head finish in fourth place in the Orange Cap race.

KKR vs RCB betting tips

Virat Kohli to be top batter - 10/3 with Highbet

The previous two IPL tournaments have seen the defending champions get off to a winning start and KKR will be targeting a hat-trick of that statistic when they host RCB on Saturday evening.

But looking to stop the 2024 champions will be RCB’s Virat Kohli who became the first player to go past 8,000 IPL runs during last season when he won the Orange Cap with 741 runs.

He may be 36 years old, but Kohli is showing few signs of slowing down and was in fine form during India’s successful Champions Trophy campaign in February and March with an unbeaten century against Pakistan and 84 versus Australia in the semi-final.

Key talking point: Narine and Varun to produce the goods again?

Two players who were key to KKR’s success in IPL17 were former West Indies all-rounder Sunil Narine and Indian international spinner Varun Chakravarthy. 

Narine made a mockery of his 2021, 2022 and 2023 IPL batting returns of 154 runs combined to post 488 runs at a strike rate of 180.74 in 2024! If he can do the same this year then KKR’s innings are sure to get off to plenty of strong starts.

Varun’s 21 wickets at a strike rate of 14.29 represented another improvement on his recent efforts in the competition but were less surprising as he had dismissed 18 batters in 2021 and 20 in 2023. 

Following last year’s brilliant campaign, he has re-established himself in India’s team and played a key role in their 2025 Champions Trophy triumph.

FIRST's top tips 

Arshdeep Singh top tournament bowler - 14/1 with Mr.Play

If Punjab Kings are to go all the way in the 2025 IPL then they will need contributions from across their squad. Left-arm swing bowler Arshdeep Singh will have an important role in the key periods of bowling during the powerplay and in the ‘death overs’ at the end of the innings.

With batters looking to take him on, he will no doubt leak runs, but that will create plenty of opportunities for this world-class bowler to add to his returns of 64 wickets across the last four IPL seasons. 

Particularly impressive when one considers that his team have never given him the luxury of play-off games at the end of the season to add to his tally!

Odds correct at the time of writing.