IPL 2018: Chris Gayle Honoured by Sourav Ganguly at Eden Gardens

Dinesh Karthik and Ravichandran Aswhin, who apart from being India cricket teammates also play together in the domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu are leading their respective sides. Earlier, KXIP captain Karthik won the toss and opted to bowl. Reflecting on the decision, Karthik said he would also have liked to bowl first but the pitch here will not change much in the second innings.

Kolkata, April 21: KXIP batsman Chris Gayle was honored by Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Sourav Ganguly as he rang the tradition bell at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday to start off the proceedings between KKR and KXIP in the VIVO IPL 2018  contest. AB de Villiers was also been handed the same privilege when RCB came here earlier in the season.

Dinesh Karthik and Ravichandran Aswhin, who apart from being India cricket teammates also play together in the domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu are leading their respective sides. Earlier, KXIP captain Karthik won the toss and opted to bowl. Reflecting on the decision, Karthik said he would also have liked to bowl first but the pitch here will not change much in the second innings.

Karthik retained the same side from the previous match while Ashwin brought Anjit Rajpoot in place of Mohit Sharma to balance the bowling attack.

Punjab (Playing XI): Lokesh Rahul(w), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Andrew Tye, Barinder Sran, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Kolkata (Playing XI): Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Tom Curran, Piyush Chawla, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav