IPL 2025 final: IPL set to crown new winner as Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Virat Kohli’s 18-year wait meets Punjab Kings’ tenacity

Indian Premier League 2025: IPL season 18 final: Royal challengers Bengaluru vs Punjab Kings. Will Virat Kohli and the Bengaluru team win the trophy

Virat Kohli's nearly two-decade long agonising wait to lay hands on an IPL Trophy with Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be up against Shreyas Iyer's resolve to make first-time winners out of the tenacious Punjab Kings when the 18th season finale of the world's biggest T20 league unfolds in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (June 3, 2025).

The summit clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium could witness a thousands of fans donning jersey No.18 to support Kohli, who is in an IPL final for a fourth time overall.

The sentiments of the fans would indeed run high given it will be Kohli's last appearance on the cricket field for a while, having recently retired from Test cricket and India's next ODI assignment a few months away.

Parting ways with issues that plagued their previous campaigns, RCB have been clinical all the way through, coming into the final with an eight-wicket hammering of Punjab in a one-sided Qualifier 1.

Kohli (614 runs) has gone about his business like every other year, piling up runs at the top and continuing to lay platforms but where it has made the difference for RCB is that there's a lot more substance to their batting beyond the superstar.

Kohli has not been the only one to carry the focus and attention this year, rather he has quietly gone about his business in fortifying for RCB.

Phil Salt is a perfect foil for the Indian superstar who goes all-out in his attack, while Mayank Agarwal, skipper Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma are the trusted lieutenants of that batting line-up.