IPL 2023: Punjab Kings win toss, elect to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders in crucial clash

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 8 (ANI): Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and elected to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday.

PBKS is at the seventh spot in the points table with five wins and five losses. They have a total of 10 points. KKR is in the eighth position in the points table with four wins and six losses. They have a total of eight points. KKR had won their previous match against Sunrisers Hyderabad while PBKS had lost their last match against Mumbai Indians.
Punjab replaced Matthew Short with Bhanuka Rajapaksa while KKR fielded an unchanged side.

Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan said at the toss, “We gonna bat first. The wicket looks quite dry, we would like to put a good total. That is a good thing that we are scoring 200. One change, Bhanuka Rajapaksa comes in place of Matt Short.”

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Nitish Rana also said at the toss, “The wicket looks to be on the drier side. We are going with the same team. We wanted to bat first so that spin can come more into play.”

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy.