After clinching the controversial victory against Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab is all set to lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders. The Mankading by Ravichandran Ashwin to run out Jos Buttler was trolled badly by Twitterati, but this is going to be interesting that how Ashwin does his comeback. Both teams have defeated themselves among KXIP vs KKR, in previous season but Kolkata has dominated Punjab the most. In 23 face-off, Kolkata Knight Riders have defeated the Kings XI Punjab for the 15 times, whereas the KXIP have managed to get only 8 victories against them.
KXIP might go with few changes in the playing XI. Despite Sam Curran’s effective bowling in the death overs and getting two main wickets, he was the expensive bowler for the team against Rajasthan Royals. Since Andrew Tye is back on the nets, he is expected to be back to the lion’s den. David Miller and Karun Nair are the other starpack players of the team, hence Mandeep Singh and Nicholas Pooran are expected to be rested for match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Since outfield of Eden Gardens is very fast, it is expected that KL Rahul could become an X Factor for the Punjabis.
Kolkata Knight Riders would likely stick to their winning XIs, but there will be discussions made on Opening department. In the previous match, the usual experiment of Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn was missing due to finger injury, hence Nitish Rana came to the opening. Rana played a tremendous innings and left the deciders confused about his batting order. Andre Russell, the big fish for Kings XI Punjab, whether you call it in a batting or bowling, when he is there on the pitch, there will be his fear.
Probable XI:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Dinesh Karthik (c/wk), Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna
Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh/Karun Nair, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ankit Rajpoot
Squad: KKR vs KXIP
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Chris Lynn, Nitish Rana, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Nikhil Naik, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Carlos Brathwaite, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney, Yarra Prithviraj, KC Cariappa
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP): Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, Nicholas Pooran(w), Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ankit Rajpoot, Karun Nair, David Miller, Simran Singh, Murugan Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Hardus Viljoen, Arshdeep Singh, Moises Henriques, Varun Chakravarthy, Darshan Nalkande, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar
