KKR vs GT, IPL 2023: List of Impact Players in today’s match
Gujarat Titans (GT) won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens in match number 39 of the ongoing IPL 2023 on Saturday, April 29.
Both teams are placed in different halves of the points table at this juncture. Gujarat have had an impressive run so far, winning five out of their first seven games. The defending champions secured a comprehensive 55-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in their last encounter.
They are currently placed third in the standings and will become table-toppers if they manage to trump Kolkata in the forthcoming clash.
The Nitish Rana-led KKR side are languishing in seventh place in the points table. Kolkata have three wins and five defeats to their name. They started the second half on an ideal note, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 21 runs in their previous fixture.
List of substitute players for the KKR vs GT match
Kolkata Knight Riders: Suyash Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya.
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Srikar Bharat, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Shivam Mavi, Jayant Yadav.
Both teams used the impact player rule after the completion of the first innings.
For Gujarat, Shubman Gill walked out to open the innings in the run chase, replacing medium-pacer Mohit Sharma in the starting XI.
Kolkata, meanwhile, further strengthened their spin attack by bringing in Suyash Sharma in place of all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.
Speaking at the toss, Hardik Pandya stated that Gujarat had initially planned on electing to bat first after winning the toss. He suggested their decision had changed due to the overcast weather in Kolkata.
He explained:
"We will bowl first. Just because of the weather, it was bright when we came and we thought we should bat, but it has changed now. I'm pretty happy with where we are, 7 games gone, 7 more to come, we need to play good cricket and qualify for the playoffs. We will learn from the losses as well, but we just need to play some consistent cricket."
KKR skipper Nitish Rana mentioned that the side were keen to bat first in the match, despite the fact that the DLS method could come into the picture because of the weather.
He elaborated:
"We would have batted first, DLS could come into the equation, but we would still have batted first. There are always areas where we can improve, we have had some forced changes - Jason Roy has a back issue, he's replaced by Gurbaz. Harshit Rana replaces Umesh Yadav."
KKR vs GT playing XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders: N Jagadeesan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little.