Kolkata, April 29 () Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya has won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Saturday. All three matches in Kolkata have produced 200+ first innings totals so far in the tournament.
While Kolkata enter Saturday’s match at home on the back of a 21-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru, Gujarat arrive after defeating Mumbai Indians by 55 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
After winning the toss, Pandya said his playing eleven is unchanged from their last game while adding that the decision to bowl first was due to huge cloud cover, with Rashid Khan set to play is 100th IPL game. “Just because of the weather, it was bright and we thought we should bat, but it has changed now.”
“I’m pretty happy with where we are, 7 games gone, 7 more to come, we need to play good cricket and qualify for the playoffs,” he said.
Kolkata skipper Nitish Rana said pacer Harshit Rana comes in for Umesh Yadav due to the latter’s hamstring strain while opener Jason Roy misses out because of a back niggle, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz replacing him in the playing eleven. Also, Shardul Thakur is back after recovering from a niggle, replacing Vaibhav Arora.
“We would have batted first, DLS could come into the equation, but we would still have batted first. There are always areas where we can improve,” he said.
The last time these two teams met in the competition, Rinku Singh orchestrated an unforgettable finish for ages by smashing Yash Dayal for five consecutive sixes and sealing a victory for Kolkata.
Playing XIs
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya (captain), David Miller, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Josh Little, Noor Ahmad
Substitutes: Shubman Gill, KS Bharat, B Sai Sudharsan, Shivam Mavi, Jayant Yadav
Kolkata Knight Riders: N Jagadeesan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (captain), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy
Substitutes: Suyash Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya
nr/cs/
Follow Niharika Times for all the big news from India and abroad. Like us on Facebook and Twitter . Always visit Niharika Times for latest news.