Abdul Samad (Photo Source: Twitter)
Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad clashed in the Final of the Indian Premier League 2024 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on May 26. SRH won the toss and opted to bat first on a red-soil deck. SRH made a significant alteration to their playing XI as they brought in Shahbaz Ahmed at the expense of Abdul Samad. Shahbaz played as an impact player in their last game and was handy with the bat while performing exceptionally with the ball.
On the other hand, KKR fielded the same team for the ultimate clash. It is worth noting that, both teams have faced each other twice ahead of the Finals and KKR have had the upper hand. This game would be Shreyas Iyer’s second game as a captain after he led Delhi Capitals to the Finals in 2020.
“We will bat first. Looks like a good wicket, played on a different wicket the other night. There was no dew on the other night’s game, but when it does, it’s very damaging. We’ve had now dew the other night, I don’t feel there’ll be any today, I want to crack with the bat first. We have a style that doesn’t work always, but when it does work, it’s very damaging. We have done well defending scores. Pretty much the same, Shahbaz comes in for Samad,” said Cummins at the toss.
“We would have bowled, we’ll get a fair idea about how the pitch will play. It’s red soil and we played our last game on a similar surface. We need to stay with the present, stick to the basics, and execute all our plans. Every individual is taking responsibility, this is a big game, and we’ve plenty of people who’re playing in a final for the first time, nervous, but this is also a good chance. We’re going with the same team,” said Iyer at the toss.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, KS Bharat, Sherfaine Rutherford
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan
Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Mayank Markande, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar