Placed at number 3 and 4 respectively, both Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royals Challengers Bangalore (RCB), are searching for their fifth win.
The winners of today’s game will get to 10 points in 7 games, equaling those of the table toppers. The top 3 sides would be at equal footing, to be separated only by Net-Run-Rate.
At the same point in the last season of IPL, the Bangalore based franchisee had lost all six games they had played. Whereas this time, RCB find themselves placed at number 4 in the table with just as many wins.
RCB have been able to do well in the first half of the tournament this year, contrary to the years of starting off badly and needing a dash of magic in the second half.
The move to Sharjah would force the spin-duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar to change plans in accordance to the small boundaries. Chris Morris’ inclusion has also given a big boost to the team.
KKR however, in spite of looking a settled side and doing extremely well in the last two games to get wins from the jaws of defeat, are now plagued by a different set of problems, Andre Russell’s injury and Sunil Narine’s bowling action. After the last game against Punkab where Narine bowled two brilliant overs at the death to secure a win for his team, he was reported by the umpires for suspect bowling action. Andre Russell was also hit by the old knee-injury in the same clash.
These two bowlers have been extremely crucial to the re-organised death bowling plans of Dinesh Karthik.
The one thing that the two franchisees would be glad about is that the two captains, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik, have found their form back and are amongst the runs now. Dinesh Karthik is likely to continue in the finisher’s role, something he has found much success in.
If Narine is rested for today’s game, Chris Green is a like for like replacement. And if Andre Russell is unfit, either of Lockie Ferguson or Tom Banton might be given a go. While the former would leave the batting a little compromised, the inclusion of the latter would need the axing of an Indian batter for a bowler, to balance the squad.
Likely 11s:
RCB: Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal
KKR: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik (c&wk), Andre Russell/Lockie Ferguson, Sunil Narine/Chris Green, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
