Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings clash in the IPL 2021 final at the Dubai International Stadium. KKR captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to bowl against CSK on Friday. Both teams decided to retain their playing XIs from the previous match, which meant that KKR left out big-hitting West Indian Andre Russell, while there was no place for veteran batsman Suresh Raina in the CSK team. Despite Russell missing the knockout stage for KKR, he has been an integral part of the Kolkata outfit and his omission raised a few eyebrows on social media.
Here is how Twitterati reacted to KKR's massive gamble of leaving Russell out:
Russell injured himself while fielding on the boundary against Chennai Super Kings on September 26 in Abu Dhabi and hasn't played since.
Russell was replaced by Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan in the KKR playing XI. The Bangladeshi made a winning contribution when he scored an invaluable 9 not out against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Eliminator but apart from that hasn't done anything notable.
Meanwhile, at the toss, KKR skipper Morgan spoke about the dew.
"We are gonna have a bowl, the wicket looks good and there's some dew around. We are gonna give it everything tonight. We are going with the same team," said Morgan.
CSK captain MS Dhoni said he would have bowled first as well.
"We are looking to bowl first as well, initially it stops a bit and as the game goes on it settles down and toss is uncontrollable and we are prepared for both," said the former India skipper.