IPL 2025: KKR Playing XI vs LSG- Match 21

The defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), will face the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the 21st encounter of IPL 2025 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. They blew away the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the last encounter at the same venue.

Kolkata started with a defeat against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the opening fixture of the event before opening their account against the Rajasthan Royals. They slipped against the Mumbai Indians to now have two wins in four clashes.

The afternoon fixture against Lucknow will be vital for the sides’ two quality spinners, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, to do well in the event.

IPL 2025: KKR Playing XI vs LSG- Match 21

Openers- Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock (wk.)

The opening partnership between the two left-handed batters, Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock, has been a new issue for the KKR side in the IPL 2025. De Kock hasn’t found the rhythm yet in his batting, while Narine has struggled to get going compared to the last edition.

Kolkata hopes to get a good start from the pair, after which they can use the middle order to go hard against the spinners of the opponent side. Once they get runs in the middle overs, just like in the last game, the likes of Andre Russell and Rinku Singh can come to drill the bowlers in the death overs.

Kolkata hopes to get the exact benefit from the opening players in the next fixture.

Middle order- Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell

Ajinkya Rahane, the KKR captain, started well in the IPL 2025 with a fiery half-century against Bengaluru in the opening clash but hasn’t been in the same touch since then. He batted well against the Sunrisers in an important partnership with Raghuvanshi, who will be eager to extend the purple patch from the last encounter.

Venkatesh Iyer, the all-rounder of the side, was in a phenomenal knock during the last game as he put up a match-winning partnership with Rinku Singh to shoulder the KKR side to a comfortable position.

Andre Russell has always been an important member of the Knights with both bat and ball in hand. Coming in late order, he can nail the bowlers around the park, besides picking up essential wickets in the middle overs.

Ramandeep Singh also batted well against Mumbai when Kolkata lost many wickets at the start of the game.

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Bowlers- Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora (Impact)

Vaibhav Arora was the game-changer in the last game for KKR at Eden Gardens. He killed the chase with the wicket of Travis Head and also sent back the wicket-keeper batter, Heinrich Klassen, when the latter was going hard at the spinners.

Along with Narine, Varun Chakravarthy is their trump card for the side in the middle overs. In their eight overs, it becomes so hard for the opponents to score runs without losing any wickets.

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Harshit Rana has done well in patches, but the management hopes to get the best performance from him in the next fixture against the Lucknow side. Being an afternoon clash, they can look to bat first and post a good total on the board in the first innings.

KKR Predicted Playing XI vs LSG- IPL 2025, Match 21

Quinton de Kock (w.), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy.

Impact sub: Vaibhav Arora.