Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss and invited hosts Kolkata Knight Riders to bat first in an IPL match at Eden Gardens Kolkata on Wednesday.
Both teams won their first matches of the tournament but have adopted contrasting approaches in this match. While KKR capain Dinesh Karthik decided to retain the playing XI which snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad a couple of nights ago, his counterpart, Ashwin, who was in the headlines for affecting a Mankad against Rajasthan Royals batsman Jos Buttler, decided to make four changes in the playing XI.
David Miller was drafted into the side. South Africa fast bowler Hardus Viljoen, who will make his IPL debut, replaced Englan all-rounder Sam Curran. Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who was the joint highest paid cricketer in this year's auction along with Rajasthan's Jaydev Unadkat, having being picked by Kings XI Punja for a whopping 8.4 crores, was handed his IPL debut. Australian fast bowler Andrew Tye was brought into the side perhaps to negate the threat of Andre Russell.
"We are a team that always wanted to be competitive. We are looking forward for another great contest today," said Kings XI captain R Ashwin.
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Shubman Gill, 6 Dinesh Karthik (capt & wk), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Prasidh Krishna
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 David Miller, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 Andrew Tye, 8 R Ashwin (capt), 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Hardus Viljoen, 11 Varun Chakravarthy