Liam Livingstone and Mitchell Starc ( PHOTO SOURCE : IPL )
Punjab Kings took on Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 42 of the Indian Premier League 2024 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday. Sam Curran won the toss for PBKS and opted to field first. Shikhar Dhawan remains benched owing to his shoulder injury caused during a game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 9. PBKS tweaked their playing XI further as Liam Livingstone was left out and Jonny Bairstow was called back.
On the other hand, KKR have decided to let go of their priced possession of Mitchell Starc and Dushmantha Chameera debuted in his place. Starc had got a cut on his fingers against Royal Challengers Bengaluru while bowling at death. Though the reason given remains hard to digest, looking at his recent outings, it was evident the pacer would have a miss. Starc has been an expensive affair for Kolkata as he has plucked just six wickets and has leaked runs at an economy rate of a whopping 13.36.
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Livingstone was brought in against Mumbai Indians hoping for rejuvenation at the order for PBKS. He failed miserably in his first outing of IPL scoring just one run. He continued his rough patch with the bat and the move did not work out for Punjab. They have turned their heads towards their veteran batter, Bairstow and hope he hits the purple patch as the tournament nears business end.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Dushmantha Chameera, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana
Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran(c), Rilee Rossouw, Jitesh Sharma(w), Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Prabhsimran Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Prince Choudhary
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