Toss time. Cummins, once a Knight Rider, makes his way out and joins Rahane in the middle.

Rahane has the coin and he launches it into the air.

"Good evening and welcome to the first game of the 2024 Indian T20 League. It is KKR versus SRH at the Eden Gardens.

"Last year, these two teams met five times in total, with KKR winning three of those games. Their last encounter was in the second qualifier, where KKR emerged victorious by 10 runs.

"Both teams have made one change to their playing XI. For KKR, Moeen Ali comes in place of Spencer Johnson. Meanwhile, SRH have brought in Aniket Verma in place of Rahul Tripathi.

"The coin goes up and Rahane calls heads. It lands heads, and Hyderabad will bowl first. Cummins says it looks like a good wicket, before adding that he is terrible at reading pitches. He recalls their teams' encounters from last year and says this is always a big contest.

"Adds that they have spoken a bit about their approach, but mentions they feel they are at their best when attacking. Long tournament, not worrying about it too much, he says. Concludes that they normally go into the game with a clear idea of who their Impact Player will be.

"Rahane says he is really happy with the pitch, and that he would have bowled first. He hopes the pitch will assist his spinners. In home games, he feels teams should get what they want, but irrespective, he wants his team to assess the conditions quickly.

"They had an off-day against MI, he admits, but it is also about playing fearless cricket and assessing the conditions. Preparation yesterday was good, and they are looking forward to tonight.

"KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Quinton de Kock (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy

"SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins (capt), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari"