Apr 26, 2025, 01:53 PM

For the first time since last Saturday, a team decided to bat first after winning the toss in IPL 2025. Punjab Kings’ Shreyas Iyer said he saw cracks on the pitch in Kolkata and expected it to turn as the game progressed. This was also the first time a side had decided to bat first at Eden Gardens this year.

The particular strip was hosting its third match of this season. Reports suggested a dry and tired pitch. With a breeze settling in, PBKS were also hopeful there wouldn’t be much dew later in the night. They reserved the option of bringing in Harpreet Brar as an Impact Player.

Keeping the conditions in mind, PBKS welcomed back Glenn Maxwell into the XI, not just as a better batter of spin than Marcus Stoinis but also as a spinner. Azmatullah Omarzai also came in for PBKS.

Kolkata Knight Riders, almost fighting for survival in their title defence, handed debuts to Rovman Powell and Chetan Sakariya. Angkrish Raghuvanshi was expected to be their Impact Player. One of their retained players, Ramandeep Singh, was neither in the XI nor in the list of substitutes.

PBKS had 10 points from eight games, joint-fourth on the table, but with a game in hand. Defending champions KKR were joint-seventh after winning only three matches in eight.

Punjab Kings: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Priyansh Arya, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt.), 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Shashank Singh, 6 Nehal Wadhera, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Azmatullah Omarzai, 9 Marco Jansen, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Possible Impact Players: Harpreet Brar, Musheer Khan, Praveen Dubey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Ajinkya Rahane (capt.), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Rovman Powell, 8 Vaibhav Arora, 9 Chetan Sakariya, 10 Harshit Rana, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Possible Impact Players: Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia