In the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024), the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) will square off in Match 31 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Sanju Samson, the captain of Rajasthan, won the toss and asked KKR to bat first. Rajasthan, who had just defeated the Punjab Kings by three wickets, was obliged to make a few changes to their playing XI when star players Jos Buttler and Ravichandran Ashwin rejoined the squad.
Notably, Buttler was not fully fit and missed the last match against Punjab. The season began slowly for the RR opener, who scored just 35 runs in the first three games. Still, he recovered magnificently, hitting an undefeated 100* (58) in the chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Conversely, Ashwin, who was sidelined for the most recent encounter against PBKS because of a niggle, hasn’t had a particularly good season, taking only one wicket in five games. But in the two innings where he scored 45 runs, he had a few impactful cameos at bat.
Jos Buttler takes Tanush Kotian’s place.
The RR management benched left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who had a fantastic performance in the previous game with figures of 2/23 in four overs when he dismissed Jonny Bairstow and Sam Curran, to make room for the two star players. Tanush Kotian, an all-rounder who made his IPL debut in the previous match, was also required to warm the bench in order to accommodate Buttler.
The 25-year-old, who opened the inning with just 24 (31) runs, had a forgettable debut in the cash-rich competition. The same starting lineup from KKR’s last victory over the Lucknow Super Giants was used in this encounter.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt (w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Harshit Rana
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Vaibhav Arora
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal
Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Jos Buttler, Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, and Nandre Burger
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