Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 11 today: The Sportsrush presents before you KKR’s Predicted Playing 11 for their eighth match of IPL 2019.
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Dinesh Karthik’s men have hit a roadblock after getting off to a fine start. They need to pull up their socks and arrest the slide as soon as possible. They face off against the CSK team at Eden Gardens on Sunday. KKR need to up their game against the table toppers in order to get back to winning ways.
The entire team needs to rally behind each other and deliver at the right time. Their bowlers desperately need to pick up more wickets. KKR have picked up the least number of wickets in this IPL so far.
The spinners have not come to the party and there will be some concern around it. Lynn and Narine’s fitness would also be a cause of worry for the team management.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing 11 today
Top-order
It is highly unlikely that the established pair of Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine will come back into the team considering there was just a 1-day gap between the last match and the one on Sunday.
Young Shubman Gill has grabbed his opportunity at the top with both hands and displayed a fantastic innings of 65 which left most people impressed with some calling him the future No. 4 of India. The teenager has a lot of talent and he would look to further show the world the wide range of shots that he can play.
Joe Denly had the worst IPL debut possible by getting bowled for a golden duck on the first ball of the match. He would look to show his worth. Robin Uthappa has been looking good and getting starts but he needs to improve his strike rate of 129.44 and play a little more aggressively.
Middle-order
The KKR middle order looks decent. However, they need to be a little more aggressive and not depend on Russell at all times for an onslaught at the end. Nitish Rana would look to bat like he did in the initial few matches and be there till the end. Dinesh Karthik needs to give that finishing touch to the team and ensure that he is there till the 20 th over. He can also stabilise the middle order in case of a collapse.
Andre Russell has been the most consistent player in this IPL by far and has scored six 40+ scores on the trot. Carlos Brathwaite did not get the opportunity to bat for a long time but he will have to being out the big shots if Russell gets out early. He needs to finish with a bang.
Bowlers
The bowling has looked weak and KKR have picked very few wickets in this tournament. They need to have some wicket-takers who would regularly chip in with the wickets. In spite of it being a pacer-friendly deck, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav will play and try to use the bounce of the pitch to trouble the batsmen with some variations as well.
Prasidh Krishna has looked wonderful and would continue to play a crucial role. Anrich Nortje’s replacement, Matt Kelly might not arrive in time for this match.
Hence, it is expected that Harry Gurney makes a comeback to the team in place of Lockie Ferguson who has been extremely ordinary. Gurney, with his slower ones, can prove to be an effective death bowler and also, a wicket-taker.
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 11 today – 1) Joe Denly 2) Shubman Gill 3) Robin Uthappa 4) Nitish Rana 5) Dinesh Karthik (c & wk) 6) Andre Russell 7) Carlos Brathwaite 8) Piyush Chawla 9) Kuldeep Yadav 10) Harry Gurney 11) Prasidh Krishna
