Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Dinesh Karthik won the toss and elected to bowl against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match, in Kolkata on Sunday.
Hyderabad regular skipper Kane Williamaon misses out on today’s game and will be led by India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Australia opener David Warner will play his first IPL match after the one-year ban imposed on him for his role in ball-tampering scandal.
Teams:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Bhuvneshwar Kumar (C), David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib ul Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma and Siddarth Kaul
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (C), Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson and Prasidh Krishna.
(If you are viewing this on The Hindu app, click this link to view the scorecard in your browser)
Former champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will look to test its proven spin arsenal as it takes on last year’s runner-up Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL-12 at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.
Sunrisers will be strengthened by the return of David Warner. The Australian guided Sunrisers to the title in 2016, but missed IPL-11 owing to a ban from international cricket following ‘Sandpapergate’.
Warner scored a breezy century for his Sydney-based club Randy Petes to signal his return from the ban. However, the dampener for Sunrisers is the likelihood of skipper Kane Williamson missing the match with an injury.
Knight Riders enjoys the edge going by the overall history of rivalry between the two sides, having won nine of 15 meetings. But, Sunrisers will take heart from the fact that they have won the last two encounters at the Eden Gardens.
Sunrisers coach Tom Moody indicated the possibility of Williamson missing the match with vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar taking up the mantle.