Kolkata Knight Riders have been dealt a blow ahead of their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Punjab Kings as both their star spinners, Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine, have been ruled out. Struggling KKR are facing high-flying PBKS. at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata tonight.
KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, who won the toss and elected to bat, confirmed their absence, explaining that Chakaravarthy is sidelined due to an injury and Narine is unavailable as he is unwell. West Indies all-rounder Rovman Powell and Indian pacer Navdeep Saini took the spots left vacant by the two spinners.
Incidently, both the replacements are not spinners - Powell is a middle-order batter and Saini is a fast bowler. The 2024 champions are off to a shaky start, having lost their first two games of the season. A major reason behind their struggles has been the inexperience in their bowling attack.
Here are the playing XIs and the Impact Player benches:
KKR's Playing XI: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (WK), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi.
Impact Player Bench: Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Dubey, Blessing Muzarabani.
PBKS' Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (C), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Impact Player Bench: Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Pravin Dubey, Priyansh Arya, Harpreet Brar.
Chakaravarthy and Narine have been linchpins of KKR's bowling in the previous seasons but this season has been a very different story. The two bowlers combined have picked just one wicket.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
