Anuj Rawat IPL 2021: Why is Evin Lewis not playing today’s IPL 2021 match vs KKR?

Evin Lewis not playing: Rajasthan Royals have once again made four changes to their Playing XI ahead of an IPL 2021 match.

During the 54th match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals in Sharjah, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson has won the toss and chose to field.

“We’ll bowl first. With the past matches, it has been easier to bowl first on this wicket. I think there have been a lot of learnings in the last game. The bounce was varying and it was two-paced. We need to be smarter with our shots and we need to bowl good lines and lengths too,” Samson told Star Sports at the toss.

Much like Samson, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan also wanted to chase a target in a must-win match. However, being asked to bat first, Morgan hoped to put on board a “good score” in a bid to qualify for IPL 2021 playoffs.

“Would have obviously liked to bowl first. We put in a strong performance on a slowish wicket in Dubai, and we need to just put a good score here. Just because of the confidence within the group, we needn’t look too far ahead. If we win here, those two points will take care of everything. Obviously, these two points are more important than the earlier points that we have played for,” Morgan told Star Sports at the toss.

Why is Evin Lewis not playing vs KKR?

Talking about the changes made for this match, Royals have once again made a total four changes in their last league match. Batters Liam Livingstone and Anuj Rawat, all-rounder Chris Morris and fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat have been included for players namely Evin Lewis, David Miller, Shreyas Gopal and Kuldip Yadav.

Having developed a knack of continually chopping and changing, most of the aforementioned changes have been done due to the same reason. Readers must note that opening batter Lewis has been benched due to a niggle. Lewis, who has scored at a strike rate of 162.36, is likely to be replaced by Livingstone at the top of the order. If the Englishman gets going, RR might not miss Lewis tonight.

Rawat, 21, had made his IPL debut for Rajasthan in the first leg of this season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium after playing 20 T20s for Delhi in domestic cricket. Rawat’s 334 T20 runs have come at an average and strike rate of 30.36 and 118.02 respectively.

Knight Riders, on the other hand, have made a solitary change as Lockie Ferguson has returned to the XI for Tim Southee.