KKR bat first vs CSK at Eden Gardens; Pandey replaces injured Venkatesh

Ajinkya Rahane, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain, has chosen to bat first against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in Eden Gardens' last league game of IPL 2025. KKR are still in the playoffs race with three league games left, but likely need to win all three to stay in contention. CSK are already out.

KKR come into this game having won their last two matches. They batted first in both those games, and this, Rahane said, was one of the reasons for his decision at the toss. The pitch at Eden Gardens wore a tacky look before the start of play, with a few loose plates on its top surface - spinners from both sides could come into play as the match goes on.

KKR were without Venkatesh Iyer, who picked up an injury while training on the eve of the match, and has stitches in his hand. Manish Pandey came in for him. KKR named a starting XI that bats deep, with Moeen Ali slotted at No. 9. Harshit Rana will be their likely Impact Player, though Anukul Roy or Mayank Markande could also come in if the pitch proves particularly spin-friendly.

CSK made three changes, handing Urvil Patel, recently signed as a replacement for the injured Vansh Bedi, a debut and bringing back offspinner R Ashwin and the New Zealand top-order batter Devon Conway. They replaced Shaik Rasheed, Deepak Hooda and Sam Curran. Shivam Dube, who starts on the bench, is expected to come in during their chase as their Impact Player.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Moeen Ali, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Impact Player list: Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande, Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy and Luvnith Sisodia

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ayush Mhatre, 2 Urvil Patel, 3 Devon Conway, 4 Ravindra Jadeja, 5 Dewald Brevis, 6 R Ashwin, 7 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 8 Anshul Kamboj, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Matheesha Pathirana

Impact Player list: Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda, Jamie Overton, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Ramakrishna Ghosh.