Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and have opted to bat<\/b><\/p>\n
Navdeep Saini is making his debut for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL tonight.<\/p>\n
Ajinjkya Rahane:<\/strong> We are going to bat first. Looks a good wicket. Little bit on the dry side. But looks very good wicket. Slightly less grass on the surface that\u2019s why we want to bat first.<\/p>\n Shreyas Iyer<\/b>: Our (Shreyas and Ponting) chemistry blossomed from our Delhi Capitals days. He gives freedom to all the youngsters and he is an inspiration himself.\u00a0Same team<\/b>\u00a0for us.<\/p>\n Kolkata Knight Riders were forced into a late reshuffle after Sunil Narine was ruled out due to illness and Varun Chakaravarthy picked up an injury in the previous game. Varun hurt himself while attempting a catch, leaving KKR without one of their main bowlers.<\/p>\n Navdeep Saini replaces Varun, while Rovman Powell comes in for Narine. The changes weaken KKR\u2019s spin options, especially with both regulars unavailable at the same time. It also leaves the side with decisions to make around the opening combination, with Narine often used at the top. This is the first time since 2019 that KKR will take the field without both Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy.<\/p>\n Despite the disruptions, captain Ajinkya Rahane chose to bat first after winning the toss. He said the surface looked dry with less grass, making it suitable for setting a total, even with rain around.<\/p>\n Rahane admitted KKR\u2019s slow start to the season but stressed the need to stay confident and focus on key moments. Before the start, head coach Abhishek Nayar was seen leading an animated team talk, as KKR looked to respond after early setbacks in both selection and form.<\/p>\n Navdeep Saini is making his debut for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL tonight.<\/p>\n Kolkata Knight Riders<\/b>\u00a0(Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi<\/p>\n Punjab Kings<\/b>\u00a0(Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Cooper Connolly, Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal<\/p>\n Impact Substitutes<\/u><\/b>:<\/p>\n Kolkata Knight Riders<\/b>: Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Dubey, Blessing Muzarabani<\/p>\n Punjab Kings<\/b>: Vishnu Vinod, Praveen Dubey, Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and have opted to bat Navdeep Saini is making his debut for Kolkata\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":47402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47404,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47388\/revisions\/47404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}KKR hit by Narine illness, Varun injury before toss<\/h3>\n
Rahane opts to bat as KKR back surface<\/h3>\n