Kolkata Knight Riders has made a shocking combination in their first XI against Delhi Capitals by leaving their pacer Vaibhav Arora on the bench and opting to go out with Anukul Roy, an Indian spinner.

Arora has been an instrumental figure in the KKR camp since 2023, playing an important role behind the Purple Brigade's IPL 2024 triumph. In the last match of IPL 2025, where Kolkata Knight Riders faced Punjab Kings, Arora took a couple of wickets; so far, he has bagged a total of 11 scalps in 8 matches.

The defending champion side is struggling to get their momentum from the beginning of the ongoing tournament; they are still looking for the right combination. The Kolkata-based franchise is currently in 7th spot with 7 points after playing 9 games. They need to win all of their remaining matches to keep their playoff possibilities alive.

Read More: Chennai Super Kings qualification scenario in IPL 2025: It's not all lost

Opting out Vaibhav Arora out of the playing line-up against Delhi Capitals is an unpredictable move from the Ajinkya Rahane-led side. During the toss, the KKR skipper has made clear why they put Anukul Roy into the squad in place of the pacer.

 KKR skipper explained why they left Arora in dugout 

According to the experienced cricketer, "Anukul Roy comes in. It's hard to read the wicket (Arun Jaitley Stadium), but looking at it now and the last game, the left-arm spinner seems like a good option. We have to win five out of five. We're trying to give our best and play one game at a time. We don't want to think too much about the pitch; we'll assess conditions quickly and decide the approach."

Delhi Capitals vs Kolkata Knight Riders squads for the match

Delhi Capitals

Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, and Mukesh Kumar.

Impact Subs: Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tripurana Vijay, and Donovan Ferreira.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, and Varun Chakaravarthy.

Impact Subs: Manish Pandey, Mayank Markande, Vaibhav Arora, Ramandeep Singh, Luvnith Sisodia.