Sunil Narine will not be part of the Kolkata Knight Riders starting XI in today's (March 26) IPL 2025 match against the Rajasthan Royals, at Guwahati.
Having lost the season opener, KKR will be without Narine in their second match against RR at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday.
Follow today's IPL 2025 match live here.
Narine’s absence deals a dual blow to the defending champions: it weakens their bowling attack and forces a reshuffle at the top of the batting order. The all-rounder, a regular opener for the franchise recently, had smashed a 26-ball 44 against RCB (March 22) and was their most economical bowler (1-27) – though RCB eventually chased down the 175-run target in 16.2 overs.
After winning the toss and opting to bowl first, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane confirmed Narine will miss out as the Caribbean all-rounder is unwell. Instead, former England all-rounder Moeen Ali will take his place in the playing XI.
Match 6, Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders
vs
- Ball by ball Over
This will be Moeen Ali’s first game in KKR colours. Moeen’s first three IPL seasons came for Royal Challengers Bengaluru between 2018 and 2020. Then he switched allegiance to the Chennai Super Kings, where he won two titles in four years. Following his international retirement in September 2023, Moeen was let go by his previous IPL franchise before KKR acquired him for his base price of INR 2 crore at the mega auction.
RR also made one change after the loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, bringing in Wanindu Hasaranga for Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Shreyas Iyer was left stranded three runs short of his maiden IPL century, not facing a single delivery in the last over.
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 25, 2025
Shashank Singh later opened up about their mid-pitch conversation.
Read here ➡️ https://t.co/67QslO3k4j pic.twitter.com/2NhjPmwxdj
KKR XI against RR
Quinton de Kock (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy.
Impact Subs: Anrich Nortje, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Luvith Sisodia
