‘Don't Want to Take Risks with Him’: Rashid Explains Why Hardik isn't Playing vs KKR

Defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) will look to register a hat-trick of wins when they take on Nitish Rana-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday. The hosts have won the toss and will be batting first in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match no. 13 in Ahmedabad.

GT vs KKR IPL 2023 Match no. 13 Live

To everyone’s surprise, not Hardik Pandya but Rashid Khan walked out for the coin toss on Sunday afternoon at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Afghanistan leg-spinner said the GT skipper is unwell and hence, has pulled himself out. Rashid added that Hardik has been replaced by all-rounder Vijay Shankar in the playing XI.

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“We would like to bat first, looks like a fresh wicket, hopefully, we can put up a good total and defend it. Hardik is Just unwell slightly, don’t want to take risks with him. As a team, we will try to play good cricket. We would like to bat well and put runs on the board. Just one change, Vijay Shankar is in for Hardik," said Rashid Khan after winning the toss.

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KKR, on the other hand, have made a couple of the changes to the playing XI that thumped RCB in the previous encounter. Tim Southee has been replaced by compatriot Lockie Ferguson and Narayan Jagadeesan has come in for Mandeep Singh.

“We wanted to bat first as well because of the weather and conditions. I felt defending might be easier. We had in our minds that batting first would be the way to go so that our spinners can make use of the surface in the second half but it’s okay. We have two changes. Lockie Ferguson comes in for Tim Southee and Mandeep Singh makes way for Jagadeesan," said KKR skipper Nitish Rana.

Here are the playing XIs:

KKR: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Suyash Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy.

GT: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Rashid Khan(c), Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal.

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