Defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) were given a massive blow today as they took the field without their regular skipper Hardik Pandya against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It was Rashid Khan, Pandya as deputy, who was leading the side today against KKR.
Why is Hardik Pandya not playing today?
Hardik Pandya is not playing today because he is ill, said vice-captain Rashid Khan at the toss, who is captaining the Titans vs KKR. Rashid said, Hardik is “Just unwell slightly, don’t want to take risks with him”.
Not having Hardik in the side gives a bit of dent to the Titans, for whom not only Hardik has been an inspirational leader, but he’s played a crucial role as a pace-bowling all-rounder. And even though he hasn’t had a good start to the Indian Premier League 2023 individually, Hardik led the Titans to victories in both their matches so far.
Speaking of the changes in both the teams for today’s GT vs KKR match, Vijay Shankar gets to start the match in place of Hardik , who is ill and is resting today, while for KKR, Lockie Ferguson and N Jagadeesan replaced Tim Southee and Mandeep Singh.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Suyash Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Rashid Khan(c), Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal
Kolkata Knight Riders substitutes: Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, David Wiese, Mandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer
Gujarat Titans substitutes: Jayant Yadav, Srikar Bharat, Mohit Sharma, Matthew Wade, Joshua Little
