Punjab Kings won the toss and chose to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the 44th match of the Indian Premier League 2025 on Saturday at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Both teams made changes to their line-ups for the important clash. For Kolkata Knight Riders, Rovman Powell replaced Moeen Ali while Chetan Sakariya came in for Ramandeep Singh. For Punjab Kings, Glenn Maxwell and Azmatullah Omarzai were included in the playing eleven.
KKR will be up against their former captain Shreyas Iyer, who led them to their third IPL title last year. KKR must win five of their remaining six matches to have a chance of qualifying for the playoffs. On the other hand, PBKS are in fifth place, and a win could lift them to fourth.
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Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer said during toss that the team chose to bat first as they are playing on the same pitch used earlier. "We are batting first. Since we are playing on the same wicket they played on. Can see a few cracks, will get an idea on how its playing. It's always been great to play in front of this crowd. Another day to come here and embrace. We have been getting brilliant starts. We are talking about a few situations, need to play to our best ability and believe in ourselves. I want the bowlers to take wickets, it changes the momentum. The more wickets we take in the powerplay, gives a chance to the other bowlers. Maxwell and Omarzai come in," Iyer said.
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane said the team needs to focus on playing good cricket and chasing down any target. "It's all about playing good cricket, need to chase down whatever the target is. Our bowlers have been bowling really well. They have improved a lot. The boys have disappointed with the bat, but need to be brave in this format. Our batting unit needs to do well in this game. We have been playing good cricket in patches. It's all about living in the moment and need to be positive. Powell comes in Moeen and Sakariya comes in for Ramandeep," Rahane said.
Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:
Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Harpreet Brar, Musheer Khan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anrich Nortje, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy
Teams:
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer(c), Josh Inglis(w), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Rovman Powell, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
