IPL 2025: Why is Rahmanullah Gurbaz not in playing XI in SRH vs KKR Match 68?

Rahmanullah Gurbaz will not play for the Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 68 of the Indian Premier League, which takes place at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

KKR and SRH have already been eliminated from the contention, hence this is a dead rubber. However, it is logical to assume that both would prefer to end their campaigns on a positive note.

Toss Update

Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first. Cummins was hopeful that the batters click with the bat. On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane said that he wanted to bowl first in any case. He also gave a special mention to Angkrish Raghuvanshi and his special talent of adapting to different batting positions.

Gurbaz makes way for de Kock, SRH field unchanged XI

Quinton de Kock replaced Gurbaz at the top of the order. KKR’s clash against CSK was the Afghan’s fifth and final game of the season. The 23-year-old has been underwhelming in IPL 2025. He was able to score only 74 runs in five innings. The South African will make his first appearance for KKR after over a month on the bench. The Cummins-led SRH went ahead with the same XI which defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 42 runs.

What did the captains say?

Pat Cummins (Sunrisers Hyderabad)

Will bat first, looks like a good wicket. We’ve just clicked, the bowlers have been sharp and the batters have played to potential. Always hope to find momentum early, the good thing is we know we can keep this squad going forward. We have played well last 3-4 games, will try to find that consistency. Same team as the last game.

Ajinkya Rahane (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Was looking to bowl first either way. The teams that chased in the last two games won at this venue, and they chased things down quite easily. Playing after 18 days feels like a challenge, but just trying to focus in the practice session. We know everyone is going home after this game, so we are just trying to play to win and play to entertain.

We had our moments this season, it is all about accepting the mistakes and learning from the good things. It is about playing for the fans, playing for pride. Agkrish has been fantastic, he is an opening batter but he has adapted to playing at 4 or 5. I hope he builds from this and gets to represent India as well. He has been working hard and he could have a bright future ahead of him. No changes, we are playing after 18 days so not really sure about the team.

Playing XIs

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wK), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga

Impact Substitutes: Mohammad Shami, Harsh Dubey, Sachin Baby, Zeeshan Ansari, Simarjeet Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Anrich Nortje, Varun Chakaravarthy

Impact Substitutes: Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia