Kolkata, April 19 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals (RR) won the toss and elected to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 28th match of the tournament here at Eden Gardens in the first game of the double header on Sunday.

KKR aim to stay competitive against a weakened RR in this matchup. While RR gained momentum with four straight wins before being halted in their latest game by SRH, KKR have faced the opposite challenge, still seeking their first victory after six matches.

The hosts have only earned one point so far, from a rain-affected home game. RR has proven to be one of the most composed teams this season, maintaining momentum through consistent performances and key wins, keeping them close to the top of the standings.

KKR and RR have faced each other 32 times in the IPL so far, with KKR slightly ahead, winning 16 matches while RR has won 14.

Winning the toss, RR skipper Riyan Parag said, “We’re batting first. Looks like a pretty dry wicket; the grass was cut yesterday. It could turn in the first innings and remain the same later on. Let’s set the tone at the start: our focus is on doing better, last match was a learning phase, we need to take it into the games. Hetmyer and Brijesh are back, they replace Pretorious and Tushar Deshpande.”

Meanwhile, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane said, “We wanted to bat first. In this situation, we want our batters to be free from any pressure. The bowlers have started to perform well, and I’m happy to lose the toss. We live in the past, we can’t say about the future, just focus on the controllables. The preparation has been fantastic and the preparations have been good. Just go out there and do well. We have the same team.”

Playing XIs:

Rajasthan Royals: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Ravi Bishnoi, and Brijesh Sharma

Impact Substitutes: Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Yash Punja

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Tim Seifert (wk), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakaravarthy

Impact substitutes: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Finn Allen, Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Singh, Navdeep Saini

–IANS

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