PBKS vs KKR: Why is Venkatesh Iyer Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match? Check KKR Playing XI

In a really surprising news update, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are not playing their star all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer in their first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) campaign against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) being played at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. It will be a big challenging task for the Kolkata Knight Riders to put up a consistent show in IPL 2023 after they failed to even qualify for the playoffs during the last season of the T20 competition. However, KKR have some talented impact players in their line-up who will be eager to contribute in IPL 2023.

PBKS vs KKR: Why is Venkatesh Iyer Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match?

During the toss, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana mentioned that Venkatesh Iyer is not part of the KKR playing XI for this PBKS vs KKR IPL 2023 match on Saturday. After a fantastic debut season for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the second half of IPL 2021 where he smashed a total of 370 runs from just 10 games at a strike-rate of close to 130 that included as many as 4 half-centuries, Iyer was one of the four retained players ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. However, Venkatesh had a horrible season in IPL 2022 where he managed to score just 182 runs from 12 matches at a poor strike-rate of less than 110 and he was also dropped from the playing 11 a few times last year. Therefore, the KKR team management has decided to start with Mandeep Singh and the explosive Rahmanullah Gurbaz as the two openers in IPL 2023.

KKR Playing 11

1. Mandeep Singh
2. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)
3. Nitish Rana (C)
4. Andre Russell
5. Rinku Singh
6. Sunil Narine
7. Shardul Thakur
8. Anukul Roy
9. Tim Southee
10. Umesh Yadav
11. Varun Chakravarthy

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Kolkata Knight Riders 2023 Squad

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