Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Abhinav Manohar, Jaydev Unadkat, Travis Head, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell Luvnith Sisodia.

Teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Kamindu Mendis, Simarjeet Singh, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ramandeep Singh

We do have a couple of changes for SRH as well. Kamindu Mendis makes his IPL debut and Simarjeet Singh is back into the first XI

Ajinkya Rahane - Looks good, I'm really happy with the pitch, we were also bowling first. It will suit our spinners, at home, you should get what you want, but we'll need to assess the situation quickly with the bat. We sat together, discussed how we can get better, but this is a long tournament and it was one bad day. Moeen Ali comes in place of Spencer Johnson. Regardless of all plans, we'll have to come out and do well in the middle. 

Pat Cummins -
We will bowl.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to field

Quinton de Kock - We had a couple of meetings. Talk was to keep things simple from a bowling point of view. When our bowlers are under the pump, sometimes they get carried away and try to do different things instead of just doing the basics and focusing on execution. Pretty much those sort of things. From a batting point of view, obviously we didn't have a great game. We just talked about things like shot selection, awareness in your batting. We just went back and spoke about the basics. It's the early stage of the tournament, not every team can get off to a flier. We've done some pretty good things until this period. The conditions are changing in Kolkata. Everyday it feels like it's getting five degrees hotter. Apart from that, wickets are staying the same. Pretty decent wickets.

Nitish Kumar Reddy - Absolutely, last year they showed faith in me, it's time for me to stand up, perform and make the situation better for the team. Nothing, we've been trying too much, just keep it simple like last year. Personally, I was trying too much, just need to keep calm and take the game on, that's the team plan, as you know, we're not the team that plays for 140s and 150s, we know the batting style, we might flop some matches, but hopefully we'll have a better day today, it's about the 1-2-3 setting up the platform for the rest of the batting group. I haven't bowled a lot, looking at my batting and fielding, I want to save as many runs as possible and score as much as possible with the bat.

62m and 64m square boundaries with the straight boundary at 75m. The pockets aren't too big either, at 69m and 70m respectively. A pretty good surface, it's really firm and well put together, well grassed. But there is an area where there are some spots which can be worked out by the spinners. You can bowl a full length, hit those spots and get some spin with the new ball as well. 100% chase if you win the toss, a hot day at around 35 degrees, dew could come in and make the ball skid, reckon Pommie Mbangwa and Eoin Morgan, in their pitch report. 

18:20 Local Time, 12:50 GMT, 18:20 IST: We're into Match 15 of this season's Indian Premier League and tonight's contest is a massive one - defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders take on last season's finalists Sunrisers Hyderabad iun what would be the 4th match for both franchises. These were two teams that burst open the tournament with thrill-a-minute stuff last season, but both teams have had a tough time this season so far. Both have identical records, one win and two losses, and are only separated by net run-rate. Co-incidentally, both teams have their lone win against the Rajasthan Royals, another team that has struggled to match last year's performance so far. Batting has been the problem area for both teams, the power-packed Sunrisers misfiring at the moment and the depth of the Knight Riders failing to assert itself. The Knight Riders have also been vocal about the kind of pitches being delivered at the Eden and that has attracted a lot of controversy. Will tonight's spin play to their strengths? A lot of intrigue awaits as both teams look to rejuvenate themselves and pull away from a clogged bottom half.

Preview by Aayush Puthran

The finalists of IPL 2024 are finally facing off this season. Their respective situations though, aren't as pleasant in 2025. Three games down, Kolkata Knight Riders sit at the bottom of the table while Sunrisers Hyderabad find themselves only two places higher a day ahead of their clash at Eden Gardens.

The two teams that piled on big scores last season, could potentially find themselves engaged in a low-scoring contest on Thursday. The stubborn standoff between Kolkata Knight Riders and the pitch curator at Eden Gardens seems to have come to an end, and at least for now it seems like the franchise has had its way.

A day ahead of the contest against Sunrisers Hyderabad, two pitches were kept - a dry surface and a drier surface - and it is understood that the franchise has been allowed to take a final call on the surface they wish to play on. They have opted for the driest one.

Even as the IPL rules do not allow for the franchises to dictate the making of the pitches, KKR are not alone to raise their grievance on the surface they would like to play their home games on. Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants have also joined the chorus in recent days.

Dwayne Bravo, the mentor of KKR, made his stance clear ahead of the game - assess the conditions, adjust to the conditions, irrespective of what the pitch is. While he claimed that the message was for his players, it could also serve as a subtle warning to their upcoming opposition, Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have thrived on flat tracks since last season and will now be put up against a new challenge.

SRH may not have the best spin attack on paper, but their batting firepower against spin cannot be taken lightly. While KKR's effort to draw themselves out of the bottom position using spin seems like a prudent decision, it could also potentially misfire against the Pat Cummins-led side.

Last season at this venue, both teams piled on 200-plus totals. A repeat of that is unlikely to happen on Thursday, but it would surely give a twist to a tournament which is increasingly become a mere boundary-fest, threateningly boring.

When: Thursday, April 3, 2025, 7:30 PM IST

Where: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Eden Gardens, Kolkata

What to expect: As mentioned above, a dry surface. Even if SRH don't have too many high-quality spin options, they do have batters well-equipped to counter the tweakers, against whom they are likely to be tested.

Head to head: KKR have historically had the edge over SRH with a 19-9 win-loss record. Since 2020, they have won nine out of 11 games against SRH.

Team Watch:

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Injuries/Unavailability: Anrich Nortje is 'close to' full fitness as mentioned by Dwayne Bravo. He is likely to be unavailable for the game.

Tactics & Matchups: Moeen Ali could come in as the third spin option, in place of Spencer Johnson who hasn't been able to make much impact so far. His presence would also some muscle to the batting which hasn't quite clicked for KKR this season.

Probable XII: Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Moeen Ali, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Injuries/Unavailability: No injuries have been reported.

Tactics & Matchups: Pat Cummins has enjoyed a fair bit of success against Sunil Narine, dismissing the southpaw twice in seven deliveries in IPL. He could come into the attack early. Also, given the number of left-handers in KKR's side, Travis Head could have some additional work with the ball.

Probable XII: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar/Zeeshan Ansari, Adam Zampa

Did you know?

SRH had the worst bowling average (37.54) and the second-worst economy rate (9.89), marginally better than DC (9.95) in IPL 2024. Their economy rate continues to be the worst in IPL 2025

Sunil Narine has gone wicketless in 14 of his 25 IPL outings vs SRH

SRH have the best scoring rate in the powerplay this season (11.88), but have also lost seven wickets in this phase (the most by any team)

What they said:

I don't know much about pitches. For me, the team who plays the best on the day will win. So, whether the pitch is slow, whether it's turning, whether it's not turning, my advice to the players will always be to make the necessary assessments, and play according to the conditions - Dwayne Bravo, KKR's Mentor

Both teams have very long batting line-ups. To get through them is not easy. Last game that we were here, it was a 200 plays 200. It was a close game. Looking forward to another one of those - Ryan Cook, SRH's fielding coach

Squads:

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins(c), Wiaan Mulder, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari, Adam Zampa, Sachin Baby, Eshan Malinga, Simarjeet Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Rahul Chahar, Atharva Taide

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Spencer Johnson, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia, Moeen Ali, Rovman Powell, Mayank Markande, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya