Abu Dhabi [UAE], September 20 (ANI): Royal Challengers Banglore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium on Monday.

Speaking at the toss, Virat Kohli said: “We will bat first. Looks like a good pitch, the grass will hold it together, will slow down as the game progresses. This one’s special, we promised back in May that we’ll play for the Covid warriors, here it is — we’ll auction this uniform and the proceeds will go to them. Two debutants for us — KS Bharat and Wanindu Hasranga.”Kolkata captain Eoin Morgan said: “Looks really good, it should stay pretty similar for the entire length of the game. Hoping that the performances will change in this phase of the tournament. It’s been challenging, but we are happy to be back here.”KKR had a lukewarm start to the first half of the competition, winning just two of their seven league matches. Meanwhile, for RCB, the primary concern in the two losses that they suffered earlier in the season was a lack of application in the batting unit, which they will look forward to improving in this resumption. RCB currently sits at third on the table while KKR is in the seventh position.

Playing XI: Kolkata Knight Riders: S Gill, V Iyer, N Rana, R Tripathi, E Morgan, D Karthik, S Narine, A Russell, L Ferguson, V Chakaravarthy, and P Krishna.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: V Kohli, D Padikkal, KS Bharat, G Maxwell, AB de Villiers, S Baby, W Hasaranga, K Jamieson, H Patel, M Siraj, and Y Chahal. (ANI)