The pitch at the Eden Gardens has been in focus at the IPL 2025 like no other strip. After Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane said that he would want the pitch to aid his slow blowers, Eden Gardens pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee quite sternly said that his duty was to make a neutral pitch. So, it was no wonder that at the toss, the first question Rahane encountered was about the pitch. “Looks good, I’m really happy with the pitch, we were also bowling first. It will suit our spinners, at home, you should get what you want, but we’ll need to assess the situation quickly with the bat,” Rahane said after KKR were sent to bat.
“We sat together (after the last match), discussed how we can get better, but this is a long tournament and it was one bad day. Moeen Ali comes in place of Spencer Johnson. Regardless of all plans, we’ll have to come out and do well in the middle.”
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 15th encounter of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday. SRH will be looking for their revenge against the Knight Riders, last year they could not win any game against KKR, this year they would like to turn the tables.
This clash is the fourth match for both sides in the 18th edition of the cash-rich league. Currently, KKR are placed at the bottom of the IPL 2025 points table with two points whereas the Sunrisers is on eighth with two points from their three matches so far in the ongoing tournament.
SRH captain Pat Cummins said, “We will bowl. Looks like a good surface, but I’m terrible at reading it. They outplayed us in the final, but a bit of change in both sides. We’ve spoken about our batting, we’ve been at our best while being aggressive, but we can’t be reckless. He has been amazing, doesn’t get unfazed by any situation. Coordination is the key, but we do have a clear idea.”
Sri Lankan batter Kamindu Mendis will be making his IPL debut.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Kamindu Mendis, Simarjeet Singh, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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