KKR are opening their campaign in this season of Indian Premier League against MI in Abu Dhabi. The two time champions after winning the toss elected to bowl first Rohit Sharma, at the toss, announced that he is playing the same XI he played against CSK in the season opener. Kolkata Knight Riders, as expected, are playing Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine and Pat Cummins as their four foreign players.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Nikhil Naik, Pat Cummins, Kuldeep Yadav, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Rohit Sharma: What happened in the past it's past. There are some areas where we need to rectify. Hopefully we don't make those mistakes. We are playing with the same XI. Having someone like Pollard in the squad is always nice. He is a massive player for us, hopefully he'll come out and enjoy his game, like he always goes. Malinga like Pollard, has been a massive player for us. It was unfortunate that he couldn't make it due to personal reasons. That gives an opportunity to others. We need to enjoy our cricket as a squad.
Dinesh Karthik: We will bowl first. We saw the first game, there was some dew, so we want to make use of it. Really proud to start the tournament today. We got Morgan, Cummins, Russell and Narine. I think they're really looking forward to this. We are looking forward to the young guys.
