IPL 2025: Gurbaz and Moeen come in as KKR elect to bowl first against table-toppers GT

Kolkata, April 21 (IANS) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have brought in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Moeen Ali, as captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to bowl first against table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT) in match 39 of IPL 2025 at the Eden Gardens on Monday.

While GT, the IPL 2022 winners, are comfortably placed at top of the points table via five wins from seven matches, defending champions KKR are at seventh position with three wins and four losses in seven games. Moreover, GT lead the head-to-head record against KKR by 2-1.

Gurbaz and Moeen come in place of South Africa duo Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje, with Angkrish Raghuvanshi set to come in during the chase as an impact player. “The pitch looks on the drier side, and when we bowl we want to see how it is behaving.”

“It is a chasing ground. We spoke after the last game. The players are working very hard. There is a motivation to go up the ladder. I am positive about all players. Not too worried about middle-order,” said Rahane after winning the toss.

GT skipper Shubman Gill said he doesn’t expect for dew to come later in the match. “Don't think there will be any dew. So it should be a good game. The way we have been bowling has been great. We have been contributing with wickets. The skill set that he (Rashid Khan, GT vice-captain) brings with his bowling has been great.”

Playing XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, and Varun Chakaravarthy

Substitutes: Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, and Anukul Roy

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (captain), B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar, Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna

Substitutes: Ishant Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Karim Janat, and Arshad Khan

--IANS

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