Anrich Nortje makes KKR debut, Xavier Bartlett replaces injured Lockie Ferguson in IPL 2025
South Africa pacer Anrich Nortje has made his IPL debut for Kolkata Knight Riders. The speedster has replaced Moeen Ali in the playing XI. On the other hand, Xavier Bartlett made his IPL debut, replacing Lockie Ferguson.
South Africa international Anrich Nortje made his Kolkata Knight Riders debut against Punjab Kings in the ongoing IPL 2025. The express pacer was bought in for INR 6.5 crore but failed to break into the team’s playing XI as Australia quick Spencer Johnson was preferred over him. However, against Chennai Super Kings in the previous match, Moeen Ali replaced Spencer, and now he has been replaced by Nortje, which was a tactical call.
Meanwhile, Xavier Bartlett made his IPL debut. The 26-year-old has played 64 T20 matches and has picked up 80 wickets at an economy rate of 8.37. The Shreyas Iyer-led side started the season with Azmatullah Omarzai, who was replaced by Lockie Ferguson. However, the New Zealand international suffered an injury, which almost ruled him out of the tournament.
PBKS vs KKR Playing XI:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Varun Chakaravarthy
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
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