KKR vs GT: Gujarat win toss, opt to field; rain delays start

Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Titans in Match 39 of the Indian Premier League has been delayed with rain at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday. Before rain arrived and the covers were brought on, GT captain Hardik Pandya had won the toss and decided to field.

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Pandya said at the toss that he had taken the weather conditions in mind before making the call. He added that had the sun been out, GT would have batted. Confirming the strategy, his KKR counterpart Nitish Rana said they would have liked to bat too.

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“We will bowl first. Just because of the weather, it was bright when we came and we thought we should bat, but it has changed now,” said Pandya after looking overhead at the cloudy skies.

Gujarat Titans are third in the points table with 10 points after seven games while Kolkata Knight Riders are on six points after eight games.

“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. We will learn from the losses as well, but we just need to play some consistent cricket,” added Pandya.

KKR skipper Nitish Rana said, “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.”

In teams news, GT have gone in with the same playing XI that beat Mumbai Indians by 55 runs on Tuesday. KKR, however, have been forced into making two changes with Umesh Yadav and Jason Roy out with hamstring and back injuries respectively. Taking their places are Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Harshit Rana.

KKR vs GT Playing XI:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, N Jagadeesan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy.

Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Josh Little and Noor Ahmad.

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