Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to field first at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai against Rajasthan Royals (RR). Iyer made two changes to the side. Shivam Mavi has been brought back in place of Harshit Rana. Anukul Roy has been handed his KKR debut cap replacing an out-of-form Venkatesh Iyer.
“We will bowl first, seems like a used wicket. Considering the dew factor it helps us in the second innings. We have lost many close games. The chat is always been positive cricket. We need to play fearless cricket. We have two changes. Roy comes in for Venky and Mavi comes in. It's important to have the right combination. We are trying to give as many matches as possible to the players,” Shreyas said after winning the toss.
Samson was disappointed after losing the toss. The Royals skipper made one change to his side by replacing New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell with Karun Nair.
“Nothing different today, looking forward to winning some tosses going forward. In this format the margin for error is very small. We have put in a great standard. Nothing much to improve on. We have Karun Nair coming in for Mitchell in this game. We are making a few changes looking at the conditions, and we feel Karun Nair will be a better option against tonight's opponents,” Samson said after losing the toss.
KKR are currently placed eighth on the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 points table with just three wins from nine games. A win will help them move one spot as their net run rate (NRR) is better than Punjab Kings (PBKS). On the other hand, RR need a win to get to the second spot, just behind table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT).
RR XI: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Karun Nair, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen
KKR XI: Aaron Finch, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer(c), Baba Indrajith(w), Nitish Rana, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi
