Follow UsKolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have made a significant change to their starting XI for the clash against Punjab Kings on April 26 (Saturday), handing a debut to former West Indies captain Rovman Powell. The 31-year-old, who was bought for INR 1.5 crore at the mega auction, replaces Moeen Ali in the starting XI.
That’s not the only change KKR have made as the side dropped Ramandeep Singh. Ramandeep registered scores of 1, 0 and 1 across his last three innings while not bowling a single ball, thereby making no impact whatsoever. In place of Ramandeep, the defending champions have brought in Chetan Sakariya. This will be Sakariya’s first appearance since IPL 2023, where he represented Delhi Capitals.
Punjab have also made two changes of their own, bringing in Glenn Maxwell and Azmatullah Omarzai. Marcus Stoinis and Xavier Bartlett made way for the changes.
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and Punjab will bat first in the crucial match.
Starting XIs
Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Rovman Powell, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy