Shakib makes starting XI of KKR's first match

Kolkata Knight Riders handed a debut to off-spinner Harbhajan Singh in their first game of the Indian Premier League 2021 season against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.

The right-arm off-spinner who was part of the Chennai Super Kings franchise till last year, had missed the last season due to personal reasons.

The 40-year-old will be returning to cricket after a span of nearly two years. His last appearance was for CSK in the IPL 2019 Final against Mumbai Indians on May 12, 2019 - 699 days ago.

The bowler was picked by KKR at the auctions in February at his base price of ₹2 crore, and it will be interesting to see how he fares for KKR.

The reason for KKR being named in the squad could be because of the fact that he is well versed with the conditions at the Chepauk Stadium, since he was with CSK for the past three years.

KKR picked Shakib al Hasan, Andre Russell, and Pat Cummins apart from skipper Eoin Morgan as their four foreign players in the match, while Sunil Narine was surprisingly left out.

Sunrisers Hyderabad named Jonny Bairstow, Mohammad Nabi, and Rashid Khan as their foreign options along with captain David Warner.

"We're bowling first. This wicket will play a little different, it's a lot drier. There wasn't much dew in the last training session, and so that won't make much of a difference. We know what we can chase to be honest, and we prefer doing that," SRH captain David Warner said at the toss after electing to bowl.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma