Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant, right, and Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane (PTI photo) Matheesha Pathirana’s much-awaited comeback will have to wait as Kolkata Knight Riders have left the Sri Lankan pacer out of the playing XI for their crucial clash against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium.Despite being available, KKR opted for continuity. Skipper Ajinkya Rahane said, “We wanted to bat first. It’s important to see how we play as a team at the moment. The bowling unit is pretty together. The reason we wanted to bat first was to give freedom to our batting unit to bat freely.” He added that the break helped the side reset. “The week off was really important. We sat together and thought about the last seven games and the areas we need to improve on.”
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“We didn’t play good cricket” – Mahela Jayawardene after MI’s biggest IPL loss vs CSKRishabh Pant won the toss and elected to bowl, emphasizing the need for clarity in execution. “We want to put the opposition on the back foot first and find answers as a batting group,” he said. Pant also confirmed one change as George Linde came on. “We have a lot of leaders in the group. We are close to finding a way. We just have to stick together.”With both teams sitting at the bottom of the table, the decision to leave out Pathiran adds another layer of intrigue in a must-win contest.Teams:Knight Riders of Calcutta (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane (c), Tim Seifert (w), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi.Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Mukul Choudhary, George Linde, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohsin Khan.
