Moeen Ali was handed his first Kolkata Knight Riders cap by his former teammate at Chennai Super Kings and current team mentor Dwyane Bravo on Wednesday ahead of their Indian Premier League match against the Rajasthan Royals. Ali was handed his KKR debut in place of Sunil Narine, who captain Ajinkya Rahane said was not well.

“We’ll look to bowl first. The wicket looks really good. If we bowl first, we’ll get an idea how this wicket is. The dew factor is huge here. It’s about staying positive, this format is all about being fearless, playing with intent. We played very good cricket, T20 is all about giving your best each and every day. We are looking forward to this game,” said Rahane.

He then added, “We learnt a lot from the last game. We want to stay in the moment. I don’t look at the stars that much, for me, it’s all about contributing. Sunil Narine misses out, he’s not well. Moeen Ali comes in,” said Rahane at the toss ahead of the game. Ali was part of the Chennai squad from 2021 to 2024, winning two titles with the IPL team. Before CSK, the English left-hand batsman was with Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Story continues below this ad

Kolkata and Rajasthan have both not had the best of starts to their IPL campaigns this season. Kolkata were only able to put up 174 in twenty overs against Bengaluru, a target which they chased down in just over 16 overs. Narine had hit a 26-ball 44 in that effort.

Rajasthan on the other hand came across hurricane Hyderabad, conceding a mammoth 286 runs after bafflingly winning the toss and opting to bowl first. They took the chase to within 44 runs before losing steam and subsequently their opening match of this season of the IPL.