Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik
Following the popular choice once again, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik, on Wednesday, opted to bowl fisrt at the Sgeikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi in their IPL 2020 season opener against Mumbai Indians.
"We will bowl first. We saw the first game, there was some dew, so we want to make use of it. Really proud to start the tournament today," Karthik explained.
As most must have predicted, KKR, who become the last team to kick off their IPL 2020 campaign, picked Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine as their four overseas players.
"I think they're really looking forward to this. We are looking forward to the young guys," he added.
Mumbai Indians, who lost their first match in the campaign against Chennai Super Kings at the same venue, will look to make a winning start against a team that they have overwhelmingly dominated in 25 IPL matches winning 14 and losing six. However, they are still winless in six matches at the UAE.
"What happened in the past it's past. There are some areas where we need to rectify. Hopefully, we don't make those mistakes. We are playing with the same XI. Having someone like Pollard in the squad is always nice. He is a massive player for us, hopefully he'll come out and enjoy his game, like he always goes. Malinga like Pollard, has been a massive player for us. It was unfortunate that he couldn't make it due to personal reasons. That gives an opportunity to others. We need to enjoy our cricket as a squad," Rohit Sharma said.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Nikhil Naik, Pat Cummins, Kuldeep Yadav, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
