It's Tuesday and the 21st match of IPL 2025! Kolkata's Eden Garden has turned into a battlefield for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 8. The match has already kicked off, and KKR has won the toss. The captain, Ajinkya Rahane, has chosen to bowl first.
The pitch is spin-friendly, but amid this, there is only one change for KKR: Moeen Ali has been replaced by Spencer Johnson. So far, during the Indian Premier League 2025, Spencer Johnson has played 3 matches and has managed to take only one wicket, and it seems he needs some luck to deliver a good performance today.
In the middle of all this, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane mentioned that they have chosen to bowl first, and today Spencer comes in place of Moeen on Tuesday.?
The English all-rounder Moeen Ali was selected in the last game, but he did not bowl or bat, and today he has been left out of the Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI for IPL 2025. In the past few matches, Ali has been struggling with both batting and bowling. He just managed to score 5 runs and has taken 2 wickets across two matches for KKR so far.
According to a One Cricket report, KKR already have two quality spinners in the lineup: Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine; hence, KKR have decided to go with an extra pace option.
On the other hand, Moeen Ali has not really performed at par so far. He delivered a decent performance with the ball, picking two wickets.?
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock (w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.??