Mitchell Starc bowls during Kolkata Knight Riders’ practice match ahead of IPL 2024. Photo: screengrab
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will look for solace in their bid to return to winning ways when they face a depleted Lucknow Super Giants in an Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.
The match will be KKR’s first of five home matches on the trot and the Gautam Gambhir-coached side will be fully aware that this could be decisive in clinching the play-off spot for the first time since 2021.
In the points tally, nothing separates the two teams, both of which have three wins each and lost their respective matches in the last round.
KKR’s over-reliance on their Caribbean aging duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell was exposed by defending champions Chennai Super Kings when they lost by seven wickets in their previous outing.
Narine (27) and Russell (10) failed with the bat and the team, which had twice amassed more than 200 scores from three matches thanks to the Caribbean duo’s blazing form, was able to post an under-par 137/9 in Chennai.
That sums up KKR’s batting, which relied on some strange fireworks and lacked an anchor in the absence of Nitish Rana (finger injury), who is set to sit out another match.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer has been in the spotlight since the start of the season and has failed to make an impact and his scores paint a terrible picture: 0, 39 not out, 18 and 34.
Their other designated batsman Venkatesh Iyer has three more single-figure scores this season, including one odd fifty against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and the team does not seem to have a clear role for him.
From batting at number 3 in their IPL opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Iyer was seen in the role of the finisher at number 7 and number 5 in their last two matches.
Ramandeep Singh also had a poor run after an impressive 35 against SRH.
2022 U-19 World Cup winner Angkrish Raghuvanshi has made the biggest impact after his 54 against Delhi Capitals. And he will be keen to return among the runs after failing to convert his start against CSK.
The most discussed topic about capturing Mitchell Starc’s poor form with the ball is the talk of the town.
The Aussie speed gun has an economy of 11.00 and picked up his first wicket of this IPL against DC after giving away 100 runs in the first two matches.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Anukul Roy has come as Impact Subs and is impressive and would like to form a formidable partnership with Narine.
While KKR will be overwhelming favorites at Eden, LSG will not give up easily with their modest approach even if they will be without their pace sensation Mayank Yadav for the second consecutive match.
Mayank is recovering from a side strain that ruled him out of the match against Gujarat Titans and is doing “well”, but skipper KL Rahul has said he could be “a few more games before he comes back”.
Mayank’s replacement Arshad Khan failed to impress, conceding 10.73 runs to spare as they failed to defend 167 at home against DC last night.
Mohsin Khan, who claimed 2/34 against Punjab Kings, could be a perfect replacement but it remains to be seen whether he has fully recovered from the hamstring injury that sidelined the left-arm pacer.
Calcutta-based industrialist Sanjeev Goenka’s team will be hoping for a much better show after averaging 167/7 against DC on Friday.
The likes of Quinton De Kock and Rahul will look to get back among the runs, while they also boast a powerful line-up with the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.
That they also have a formidable slow bowling line-up with Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya will pose some tough questions for KKR batters.
Teams (of):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Shamar Joseph, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry and Mohd Arshad Khan.
Match start: 3:30 PM.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: April 14, 2024 | 12:21 pm IST