Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab: Live streaming, playing XI, preview and TV listings

Rajasthan Royals will host Kings XI Punjab at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in the first match of their respective Indian Premier League seasons on March 25. 

When and where to watch the match on TV, online

The IPL match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will start at 8 pm local time and 2:30 pm GMT.

Star Sports 1 & HD1 (English) and Star Sports 3 & HD3 (Hindi) will provide live television coverage of the match. The worldwide live stream will be available on Hotstar.

RR vs KXIP preview 

Rajasthan Royals surprised everyone by making it to the playoffs last season and KXIP surprised everyone by finishing outside the top 4 after getting off to a rollicking start to their IPL campaign in 2018. 

The Royals did not make a good start to their campaign but the tide dramatically turned in their favour when they promoted Jos Buttler to open with Ajinkya Rahane. Such was the form of the Englishman that despite playing in the middle order in the opening few games of the season, Buttler finished with 548 runs from 13 matches with the highest score of 95 not out and he scored all these runs at a strike of over 155. His absence was felt by RR in the playoffs as he went away on national duty and will definitely reprise his role at the top of the order.

Another man set to reprise his stint in Jaipur is former Australian skipper Steve Smith. The right-hand batsman missed the 2018 season of the IPL after the 'Sandpapergate' saga and will be eager to show the world that he has not lost his mojo. His former teammate and alleged perpetrator of the ball tampering incident, David Warner scored a masterful 85 against KKR, so Smith will be eager to replicate the same in order get back into the international fold in the World Cup. 

For KXIP, the self-proclaimed 'Universe Boss' recently returned to international cricket and he absolutely plundered the English bowlers in their series in the Caribbean, winning the man of the series in the process. Last season, he did not play the first few games but this time around, he will open the batting with KL Rahul who has also returned to form for India on his return from suspension. 

Sam Curran will most probably make his IPL debut and bat at number 6 for the Kings after being picked up for Rs 7.2 crore. Another big earner at the auctions was Royals quick bowler Jaydev Unadkat who was picked up for Rs 8.4 crore and he will be key to the success of Rahane's team. 

Probable XIs

RR: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Jos Buttler (WK), Steve Smith, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni

KXIP: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (WK), Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Andrew Tye, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Varun Chakravarthy 

 Global TV listings