Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and chose to bowl first against Gujarat Titans in match 39 of IPL 2025 at Eden Gardens on Monday, bringing in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Moeen Ali as replacements for Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje.
“The pitch looks on the drier side, and when we bowl we want to see how it is behaving. It is a chasing ground. We spoke after the last game. The players are working very hard. There is a motivation to go up the ladder. I am positive about all players. Not too worried about middle-order,” said Rahane after winning the toss.
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KKR, seventh in the IPL points table, have been forced into making the changes following their embarrassing 95 all out show against Punjab Kings last week.
De Kock, former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter, has been dropped for Gurbaz. This is Afghanistani youngster’s first match of the season.
After the 95 run show, they’ve reinforced their batting further with all-rounder Moeen Ali coming in for Anrich Nortje.
Gujarat Titans, the IPL 2022 champions, currently lead the points table with five wins from seven matches. GT also hold a 2-1 advantage in head-to-head encounters against KKR.
Also See: IPL Live Score, KKR vs GT
GT captain Shubman Gill commented on the match conditions: “Don’t think there will be any dew. So it should be a good game. The way we have been bowling has been great. We have been contributing with wickets. The skill set that he (Rashid Khan, GT vice-captain) brings with his bowling has been great.”
Kolkata Knight Riders XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, and Varun Chakaravarthy.
Impact Subs: Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, and Anukul Roy.
Gujarat Titans XI: Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler, Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar, Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna.
Impact Subs: Ishant Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Karim Janat, and Arshad Khan.
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
