Abu Dhabi: In the 38th match of IPL 2021, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan has won the toss and opted to bat first against MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Sunday.
KKR, who are standing at fourth place, will look to consolidate their position on the points table while CSK, the second position holder, need two more points to equal league topper Mumbai Indians' tally of 16 points in 10 matches.
KKR fielded an unchanged XI from their last game against Mumbai Indians while CSK made a solitary change to their playing XI with Sam Curran coming in for Dwayne Bravo.
Eoin Morgan: We are going to bat first, we don't have any changes. Will be a different challenge as it's a day game. There's more pace in the wicket as compared to the last year. In this sort of heat, it might get slower later.
MS Dhoni: We have one change, Curran comes in for Bravo. He had a few niggles in the CPL, so we need to make sure he doesn't develop them further. The support staff is very important. Having experienced players in the side helps. In IPL it's about managing the combinations.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood
