With the dew coming in, Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith opted to bowl first in their IPL 2020 must-win agame against Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai. The Royals remained unchanged while Kolkata Knight Riders brought back Andre Russell and Shivam Mavi.
"We will bowl first, dew seems to be coming in and that's the big reason. We have bowled well majority of the tournament and hopefully we will go well tonight. The games we haven't done well, our senior batters haven't done well and fortunately Stokes and Samson are in good nick. We are unchanged," said Smith.
Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders stand sixth and seventh respectively with both having 12 points from 13 games, only differing on NRR. While the Royals stand ahead with -0.377, the Knights have -0.467, which is worst among all teams still in contention to find a spot in the playoffs.
"We would have prefered to chase. It's not a night for holding back and on top of that we need to improve the NRR. He (Andre Russell) is back and it is great to have him back and so let's hope tonight is the night. Lockie is out. Rinku Singh misses out and Shivam Mavi comes in. As a side you want to get into a position to win the game and then think about other (NRR) scenarios," said KKR skipper Eoin Morgan.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Rahul Tripathi, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson(w), Steven Smith(c), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Kartik Tyagi
