The Kolkata Knight Riders will clash against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. The Kolkata Knight Riders have lost their last match against Gujarat Titans while Hyderabad won their match against the Delhi Capitals.
Kolkata captain Nitish Rana won the toss and elected to bat first. KKR made 2 changes to their lineup. Jason Roy returned back to the side, and so did Vaibhav Arora.
For the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the exclusion of Umran Malik made breaking news. It is interesting to know why the fast bowler is not playing today.
Why is Umran Malik not playing today?
The fast bowler has taken just 5 wickets in the 7 matches at a disappointing economy of 10.35. He has failed to take wickets as well as bowl tight lines. With Karthik Tyagi fit, the management decided to play him straightway dropping Umran Malik. Tyagi has impressed everyone in his short IPL career. But due to injuries, he could not play consistently. He will look to make an impact in today’s match.
What did the captains say at the toss?
Aiden Markram – We would have batted first as well, we have tended to do well with a score on the board. We need to start playing good consistent cricket and tonight’s an opportunity, looking forward to a positive outcome. Batting needs to improve, bowling has been outstanding, but we’ve underperformed with the bat. Couple of changes in our 16 with Kartik Tyagi back in the group. He was injured for a while and is raring to have a go
Nitish Rana – We’ll bat first. Looks like a good wicket, hopefully we’ll post a good score and then restrict them. We’re not thinking too much ahead, just have to take game-by-game. We have had injuries in many games, but they’re back now. We’re playing an extra batter due to the impact rule, need to get those 10-15 extra runs. Two changes – Jason Roy is back in place of David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora replaces Jagadeeshan
Playing XI
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), Harry Brook, Abdul Samad, Marco Jansen, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, T Natarajan
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
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