Sharjah: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won the toss and elected to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the Eliminator round of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match here.
Kohli, who has decided to step down from captaincy after this edition, has led RCB to the finals in 2016 besides reaching the play-offs twice in 2015 and 2020, and he would like to end things on a high in his last hurray as captain.
For Morgan, it is about regaining the lost glory for KKR, a team that achieved great success under Gautam Gambhir, who had led them to two IPL titles in a space of three years in 2012 and 2014.
No changes have been made in the RCB and KKR squads.
Pitch Report: There aren't many cracks on the pitch and it will favour the batsmen, reckons Australian legend Mathew Hayden. Fast bowler can be effective too. Overall, a good contest between the bat and the ball.
At the toss, RCB skipper Virat Kohli said, "We are going to bat first, looks like a great wicket, nice and hard. It gets tougher to bat here in Sharjah as the game progresses. No changes. A youngster steps up and wins you a game against a top side like Delhi. Very happy for KS. This is what this tournament is all about."
KKR captain Eoin Morgan said, "We would have loved to bowl first anyway. The toss doesn't bother. We are feeling confident within the group, we are starting to come good. We are playing with the same team.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat(w), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.
