IPL 2024 Match 42 between KKR and PBKS: Why aren’t Mitchell Starc and Liam Livingstone participating?

Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) Match 42 pitted the Punjab Kings against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on Friday.

For PBKS, Sam Curran won the toss and chose to field first. Due to a shoulder injury he sustained on April 9 during a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Shikhar Dhawan is still on the bench. PBKS made additional changes to their starting lineup by benching Jonny Bairstow and leaving out Liam Livingstone.

Conversely, KKR made the decision to part with their expensive asset, Mitchell Starc, and Dushmantha Chameera made his debut in his stead. While bowling at death against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Starc sliced his fingers. Despite the difficult-to-understand explanation provided, based on his recent performances, it seemed clear the pacer would miss. Despite taking just six wickets, Starc has cost Kolkata a lot of money as he has leaked runs at an astonishing economy rate of 13.36.

Also read: Shikhar Dhawan’s injury return date for the 2024 IPL has been confirmed ahead of PBKS’s next match

Livingstone was brought in to face the Mumbai Indians in the hopes of PBKS’s rebirth. In his maiden IPL game, he utterly flopped, scoring just one run. The move did not work out for Punjab, as he carried on with his poor run of form at bat. As the tournament draws to a close, they will be looking to experienced batter Bairstow to see if he can find his purple patch.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI):

Philip Salt (w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Dushmantha Chameera, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Harshit Rana

Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: 

Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz

Punjab Kings (Playing XI):

Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran (c), Rilee Rossouw, Jitesh Sharma (w), Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, and Arshdeep Singh

Punjab Kings Impact Subs:

Prabhsimran Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, and and Prince Choudhary