Kolkata win toss, opt to bat against CSK; KKR’s Venkatesh Iyer misses out

KOLKATA: Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and opted to bat against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Eden Gardens on Wedsnesday in their match in 18th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). Rahane said team vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer will not participate due to an injury. Manish Pandey will take his place.

“We will bat first. Looks a good wicket. Last two games we batted first and did really well. We want to put runs on the board and defend it. What’s important is taking one game at a time. Not thinking much about the future. Lots of learnings from the previous match, guys are looking forward to this game. You are bound to lose close games, but you need to be confident. If there’s a chance, we will try to give our best. Venkatesh Iyer misses out, Manish Pandey comes in”, Rahane said.

Toss @KKRiders won the toss and elected to bat against @ChennaiIPL

Updates https://t.co/ydH0hsB7rk #TATAIPL | #KKRvCSK pic.twitter.com/fZ2UKkxAY4

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 7, 2025

KKR are placed at the seventh spot, with five wins and five losses whereas CSK are at the bottom with only two wins, they will try to ruin KKR’s party. The Super Kings are out of the tournament.

“I have played a lot of cricket here while growing up, like a home ground for the amount of cricket I have played here. When it was Zonal trophy, a few office leagues, overall I have played a lot of cricket here and nearby. What’s important is to get answers for the next year. What hasn’t gone well for us in the tournament. Trying to get those answers, our middle order batting and bowling solutions. We are giving chances to players, but we want a good playing XI or XII. You can try such things towards the end. Which players will slot in. They have two quality spinners, so it will be a challenge. Conway and Urvil Patel come in for Rasheed and Curran,” CSK captain MS Dhoni said.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Devon Conway, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Ravichandran Ashwin, MS Dhoni(w/c), Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana. (ANI)