India, March 22 -- Will this be the year for Royal Challengers Bengaluru? That's the question on the lips of the RCB faithful, who always enter the new IPL season with so much hope, but more than a touch of paranoia having watched this team implode in various ways. After a special campaign last season, looking dead and buried only to come back to life breathing fire, it's time for another full reset in Bengaluru. The last cycle was a pretty successful one as RCB competed for the playoffs regularly, but they now aim to go one step further, and for the higher-ups, that meant building right back from the ground up.

Their opponents for the IPL 2025 opener, Kolkata Knight Riders, have seven or eight players from last year who make their retur...