Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) top three, Shubhman Gill, Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana have had a poor run in this tournament so far. And just like their last game against Bangalore, the onus to negate the Delhi Capitals (DC) pacers upfront will be on KKR's top 3.
Bangalore destroyed KKR as the latter could only manage a score of 84 in the stipulated 20 overs.
While Nitish Rana has averaged just over 18 in the tournament, Tripathi has nothing to show apart from the solitary match-winning knock against the Chennai Super Kings. Shubhman Gill has runs to show, but he has been striking at a strike-rate of just over 110.
KKR's middle order has barely shown what they are capable of. Add to that the injury of Andre Russell and Narine's bowling action issues, KKR is in a place of worry.
The biggest bone of contention for them would still be Pat Cummins, the costliest buy of this year's auction. Cummins has been able to provide them with some handy runs lower down the order but has failed to deliver in his primary role. Lockie Ferguson has been exponentially better in the couple of opportunities he has had and would calm Morgan's nerves a little. However, KKR has failed to get wickets in the powerplay and would want to change that.
Delhi however, is at a comfortable position and in strong contention for a top 2 finish. A win today would see them back at the top of the table. So much that they rested Anrich Nortje, one of their best performers with the ball and partner in crime of Kagiso Rabada in the last game. Dhawan has been in wonderful touch, with 2 centuries in the last 2 games and Delhi would want to see the Southpaw continue his good run. An experienced campaigner in such form towards the business end of the tournament is a dream come true for the capitals.
Delhi might swap Kagiso Rabada with Anrich Nortje, giving a much-deserved break to the former. KKR would not want to read too much into the collapse last game and continue with the same 11. However, the availability of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell might threaten the places of Pat Cummins and Tom Banton.
Likely 11s:
KKR: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (w), Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell/Tom Banton, Pat Cummins/Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
DC: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Daniel Sams, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada/Anrich Nortje, Tushar Deshpande.
