Hit by accidents and unavailability of key gamers, two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will seek home comfort and look to return to profitable methods after they face a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore within the IPL, in Kolkata on April 6.
Having began their marketing campaign with a seven-run defeat through Duckworth-Lewis technique against Punjab Kings at Mohali, KKR suffered twin blows.
First premier Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan pulled out of the match due to household causes and worldwide commitments and, the subsequent day, common skipper Shreyas Iyer, who can also be their batting mainstay, was dominated out of your entire IPL as he’ll endure a surgical procedure to deal with his again harm.
KKR had made Nitish Rana their stand-in skipper, assuming that their common skipper can be again within the second half of the season however with Iyer dominated out fully, the Chandrakant Pandit-coached aspect might face a management disaster.
‘Accidental’ skipper Rana, who has expertise of main Delhi in white-ball cricket, has an enormous activity forward of him because the workforce desperately seeks some solace in its den.
The buzz is that KKR’s proprietor Shah Rukh Khan will probably be in the home after they return right here after 1,438 days. They final performed at Eden Gardens on April 28, 2019 — a 34-run win over Mumbai Indians earlier than COVID-19 hit the world.
The pleasure will probably be at an all-time excessive for each groups, with crowd-puller Virat Kohli within the guests’ dug out.
KKR regarded a shadow of their previous of their season-opener, which was interrupted by a floodlight glitch earlier than the skies opened up.
Iyer’s absence has made the batting feeble. A fast-fire fifty-run partnership between Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer, who was promoted to No. 4, was the spotlight of their batting against Punjab.
KKR can also take positives from a cracking begin by Afghan wicketkeeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who smashed a flurry of boundaries and a 101-metre six earlier than perishing for 22.
KKR had blamed the ability failure within the innings break for his or her drop in momentum, however the reality is that they must increase the bar.
On the bowling entrance, the likes of Tim Southee and Sunil Narine leaked runs, one thing they must tackle.
Narine regarded to have misplaced his thriller ball because the Punjab batters took him to the cleaners.
KKR’s assault will probably be put to check against the likes of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli, who regarded in imperious contact in an unbeaten 82 of their eight-wicket win over Mumbai Indians.
RCB’s tempo trio of Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel and Akash Deep may even look to make it rely on a seaming-friendly Eden.
But they’re more likely to miss English pacer Reece Topley, who suffered a shoulder dislocation. David Willey is anticipated to switch him.
Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N. Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das and Mandeep Singh.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudessai, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Finn Allen, Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, David Willey, Karn Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Siddarth Kaul, Akash Deep, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma and Michael Bracewell.
Match begins at 7.30 p.m.
