KOLKATA: Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya chose to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday at Eden Gardens after winning the toss. So far in the tournament, all three games played in Kolkata have resulted in first innings totals of 200 or more.
While Gujarat defeated Mumbai Indians by 55 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Kolkata enters the match on the strength of a 21-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru.
Pandya, who won the toss, stated that Rashid Khan will play in his 100th IPL game and that his playing eleven will remain the same as in their previous match owing to the heavy cloud cover. "We thought we should bat just because of the weather because it was bright, but it's changed now." We have 7 games left and 7 more to play, and he said: "I'm pretty happy with where we are. We need to play good cricket to qualify for the playoffs."
According to Kolkata captain Nitish Rana, Umesh Yadav's hamstring ailment forces him to be replaced by pacer Harshit Rana, and opener Jason Roy is replaced in the playing eleven by Rahmanullah Gurbaz owing to a back ache. In addition, Vaibhav Arora has been replaced by Shardul Thakur who has returned after getting over a minor injury.
"We would have batted first, and while DLS might have entered the picture, we would still have done so. There are always ways we can get better, he remarked.
Rinku Singh staged a historic ending when these two teams last faced off in the competition by hitting Yash Dayal for five straight sixes to secure a victory for Kolkata.
Gujarat Titans' starting XI is wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Josh Little, and Noor Ahmad.
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