Preview by Ghcalive Staff
Since Rinku Singh’s breathtaking assault on the Gujarat Titans, which allowed Kolkata Knight Riders to defeat them at the Narendra Modi Stadium, almost three weeks have passed. The subsequent campaigns of the two teams have been very dissimilar. After winning three games following their loss to KKR, the defending champions have 10 points and a comfortable position in the top half of the standings. The Knight Riders, on the other hand, dropped to the bottom of the points standings after four straight defeats before finding their footing with a victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore. With six points, they are still fourth from the bottom and will try to maintain their momentum in order to move up to the top four.
The match at Eden Gardens will feature a race between the two teams’ spinners to see who can take the most wickets, since KKR and GT presently top the IPL in terms of wrist spinner wickets. Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma, two Indian bowlers, both grabbed 16 wickets, but GT’s pacers also did a great job of chipping away at the opposition’s wickets. Alzarri Joseph hasn’t played in recent matches despite collecting a few wickets himself because of Noor Ahmad’s recent success.
The Knight Riders’ foreign speed duo of Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson proved to be extremely expensive in the opportunities they were given, which led the team to look elsewhere for pace options. As Shardul Thakur is recovering from an injury and Umesh Yadav is struggling to make an impact, only Andre Russell is providing any relief for KKR in the pace department. Varun Chakaravarthy and Suyash Sharma, who have taken 22 wickets between them, have still handled the most of the effort for the bowling unit and were crucial to some of their triumphs, particularly the one over RCB.
Even though KKR has tried six different opening combinations thus far, the addition of Jason Roy has improved the Knight Riders’ hitting lineup. Roy and N Jagadeesan’s 83-run partnership in the most recent game—KKR’s only half-century opening stand in the IPL 2023 thus far—will have finally helped the club management identify the best option at the top of the order.
The Titans’ hitting order is led by Shubman Gill, but all of the other batters have contributed significantly to what has so far been a team effort. However, in terms of strike rates, GT’s batters have lagged behind those of the KKR, and they will be hoping that the 2023 trends at the Eden Gardens go in their favour and give them a boost.
When: Saturday, April 29 at 15:30 IST
Where: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
PITCH REPORT
This season, the pitch at Eden Gardens has given the batters a lot of support, and it may do so again in this game. In the past five T20 matches played here, the first innings score has averaged 195 runs. The toss-winning team will probably decide to bowl.
What to expect: Up to four 200-plus totals have been recorded in the Eden Gardens in as short as six innings, with 222 serving as the normal first innings total. The team batting first has prevailed in all three games, but as they have all taken place at night, it is still unknown whether the conditions will be different when the match is played during the day.
Teams watch
Kolkata Knight Riders
Shardul Thakur bowled a protracted inning before the game in Bengaluru and also batted during the exercise. However, he opted out of the game because he was still recovering from a minor injury. He is “ready and available now,” according to information obtained by Cricbuzz, so unless KKR decides to bench Umesh, who has only taken one wicket and has an economy rate of around 10, he will probably replace Vaibhav Arora.
Matchups & tactic: Given that he twice removed Shubman Gill while allowing only 36 runs off 32 balls against the GT opener, Shardul could show to be a viable alternative. When KKR is bowling, Narine, who has eliminated Wriddhiman Saha four times, might be used early.
Probable XI: N Jagadeesan (wk), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy. Impact sub – Suyash Sharma.
Gujarat Titans
The Hardik Pandya-led team will likely stick with the starting lineup that has helped them win their last two games.
Matchups & tactic: Andre Russell averages just 3.67 against Rashid Khan and has a strike rate of 61.11, but Rashid Khan has three dismissals. Pandya, who has twice defeated Nitish Rana, will likely be GT’s focus throughout this game.
The probable starting XI: consists of Wriddhiman Saha as wicketkeeper, Shubman Gill at centre, Hardik Pandya at captain, Vijay Shankar, Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, and Mohit Sharma.
Did you realise?
Hardik Pandya has scored 366 runs in 11 innings of action against KKR with an average of 61 and a strike rate of 173.46. He has also taken 11 wickets off them, averaging 14.45 and 6.91, respectively.
In the IPL, Sunil Narine has bowled 1442 dot deliveries. To pass R Ashwin, who is presently in second place, he needs 11 more. The player who has bowled the most dot balls is Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1473).
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: N Jagadeesan(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Anukul Roy, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Harshit Rana, Aarya Desai
Gujarat Titans Squad: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little, Dasun Shanaka, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Srikar Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Jayant Yadav, Sai Sudharsan, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, Matthew Wade, Odean Smith, Darshan Nalkande, Urvil Patel, Yash Dayal
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