The defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, faced a big 39-run defeat against Gujarat Titans in the 39th game of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2025. They are now placed in seventh place in the tournament"s points table, with three wins and five defeats in their eight games, with only six points to their name. Advertisment Meanwhile, there have been a lot of talks among the cricket fans about the possible scrutiny KKR management needs to do in their playing XI for the next game against PBKS after a defeat against the table toppers GT in the most recent game. Many suggestions from the fans and experts are there about the star batter Manish Pandey, who has not been given enough chances to play. There is also a chance that the management might look ahead to include him in the playing XI for their next clash against the Punjab Kings. Manish Pandey likely to replace one of two out-of-form batters If KKR bring in Manish Pandey in the playing XI for their next game, he might replace the out-of-form Venkatesh Iyer and Ramandeep Singh. KKR"s most expensive bid, Venkatesh Iyer, has failed to live up to expectations in the last few games. In the last game against GT, he could score only 14 runs off 19 balls, without any boundaries and a dismal bowling strike rate of 73.68. Speaking of Ramandeep Singh, he has failed to impress with his batting performances in the last couple of games. So, Pandey is expected to replace one of these two in the playing XI after the loss against GT. Notably, Manish Pandey has played only one game for KKR in the ongoing IPL 2025 before the management has sidelined him so far. Apart from that, he could also get only one game to play last year in the IPL 2024. The star right-hander is currently the third leading run-scorer for KKR among their active batters, with 1503 runs in 59 innings of the 62 games he has played. He has scored these runs with a decent batting average of 32.67, hitting seven half-centuries.