Dashing South African batsman, dubbed as ‘Baby AB’, was handed his debut cap for the Mumbai Indians as the five-time champions take on the Kolkata Knight Riders at the MCA Stadium, Pune on Wednesday. 

The Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and chose to bowl. 

Suryakumar Yadav is back. The MI mainstay had this week joined the team after recovering from a finger injury. But his availability for the KKR game doubtful. However, skipper Rohit Sharma, at the toss, announced the 31-year-old’s return only for the stadium to give a loud cheer. 

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After losing the toss, Sharma said that he would have batted anyways. 

“We were looking to bat first. We are not looking at what happened in the last 2 games, we have to play good cricket to win games and that is what we are prepared for. Looks like a good pitch. We have done well in patches and when you want to win games you gotta perform collectively and I think that is something that was missing in the last 2 games. Couple of changes. Surykumar Yadav comes in place of Anmolpreet Singh and we got Dewald Brevis who comes in for Tim David,” the MI skipper said. 

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The Kolkata Knight Riders on the other hand called in Pat Cummins for Kiwi pacer Tim Southee. Rasikh Salam replaced Shivam Mavi in the playing 11.

 “We are gonna bowl first. We are comfortable chasing with a set target in mind. All the teams are equally good and we always have to take that winning mindset and try and back your abilities. We got two changes. Pat Cummins comes in place of Southee and Rasikh Salam comes in for Shivam Mavi. Southee was very supportive and we had a good conversation about the team changes,” KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer said at the toss. 

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Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Sam Billings(w), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Rasikh Salam, Varun Chakaravarthy

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Daniel Sams, Dewald Brevis, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Basil Thampi