Royals win toss, elect to field first against KKR

Kolkata, April 25 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith won the toss and elected to field first against Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.

KKR, who have lost five games in a row, made two changes to the side that lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad, bringing in Prasidh Krishna in place of KC Cariappa while Carlos Brathwaite replaced Harry Gurney.

Bottom-placed Royals, who lost to Delhi Capitals in their last encounter, drafted in Oshane Thomas in place of Ashton Turner with Dhawal Kulkarni making way for Varun Aaron.

Speaking at the toss, Dinesh Karthik said: "It's got a lot of grass cover on it and it'll be a great batting wicket. One of the things is to keep right people in the right space. It's very important that we get the best out of the players who are doing well. Prasidh comes in for KC Cariappa. Brathwaite comes in for Gurney."

Steve Smith said: "We are gonna bowl first. It (pitch) looks nice. Bit of grass coverage. A bit of a welcome change from what we are playing in Jaipur. Some positive signs, you want your batters in the top four to score runs. We got two changes. Big Oshane Thomas makes his IPL debut. He comes in for Ashton Turner. Dhawal Kulkarni is out and Varun Aaron replaces him."

Teams: Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Piyush Chawla, Yarra Prithviraj, Prasidh Krishna

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson(w), Steven Smith(c), Ben Stokes, Riyan Parag, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Oshane Thomas, Varun Aaron