Game 57 of the ongoing IPL (Indian Premier League) 2025 sees Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Chennai Super Kings. Both teams locked horns at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on May 7. Ahead of the game, Kolkata Knight Riders were hit with a setback as ace batter Venkatesh Iyer would be missing the must-win game against Chennai.
It is worth noting that KKR roped in Venkatesh Iyer for a whopping Rs. 23.75 crore in the IPL 2025 mega auction. However, Iyer has been unable to justify his price tag so far. The star batter has scored 142 runs in the 11 matches that he has played so far.
At the toss ahead of the clash between KKR and CSK, the side’s captain Ajinkya Rahane took centre stage and announced that Iyer would not be playing in the game. Rahane confirmed that Iyer would be missing the game due to him sustaining stitches on his hand after the last game against Rajasthan Royals.
In his place, Manish Pandey would be featuring for the three-time champions, and the team will hope to continue their winning run as they look to stay in the race for the playoffs. “We will bat first. Looks a good wicket. Last two games we batted first and did really well. We want to put runs on the board and defend it. What's important is taking one game at a time. Not thinking much about the future. Lots of learnings from the previous match, guys are looking forward to this game. You are bound to lose close games, but you need to be confident. If there's a chance, we will try to give our best. Venkatesh Iyer misses out, Manish Pandey comes in,” Rahane said at the toss.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Devon Conway, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Ravichandran Ashwin, MS Dhoni(w/c), Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana