Why is Nitish Rana not playing today's KKR vs RR IPL 2025 match?

Rajasthan Royals (RR) middle-order batter Nitish Rana has been ruled out of their IPL 2025 match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday, May 4. At the toss, the Royals skipper Riyan Parag confirmed that Rana has a niggle. Kunal Singh Rathore has replaced him in the playing XI.

Parag said (via Cricbuzz):

“Nitish Rana has a niggle, he goes out.”

Nitish Rana’s absence is not a huge loss for the Royals since they have already been eliminated from the IPL 2025 playoffs. The southpaw also failed to deliver big in his last few games, managing a string of low scores – 9, 4, 28, and 8 in his previous four innings. The 31-year-old, however, amassed a couple of half-centuries against Delhi Capitals (DC) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Overall, he scored 217 in 11 innings at a strike rate of 161.94 this season. Notably, the Royals splurged INR 4.2 crore to buy him at the 2025 auction last year.

Meanwhile, Kunal Singh Rathore is making his IPL debut. The wicketkeeper-batter has 254 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 138.04. RR bought him for his base price of INR 30 lakh at the mega auction.

Besides Nitish Rana, RR also made two more changes as Wanindu Hasaranga and Yudhvir Singh Charak replaced Kumar Kartikeya and Fazalhaq Farooqi, respectively.

KKR opt to bowl against RR in IPL 2025 match

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to bowl against RR in their IPL 2025 match. Justifying his decision, the 36-year-old said:

“We are going to bat first, looks a little dry, not sure if it slows down in the second innings. We want to put a total on the board and defend it. Need to keep it simple.”

The hosts made a couple of changes as Moeen Ali and Ramandeep Singh returned to the playing XI. The Kolkata-based franchise must win all their remaining four games to stay alive in the race to the IPL 2025 playoffs.

Follow the KKR vs RR IPL 2025 live score and updates here.