Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were thrashed by Mumbai Indians (MI) in their first game, whereas Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) would be wondering how they managed to lose against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Both KKR and SRH, after having a dismal start to the tournament are the only two teams who still haven't opened their account. Both of them would want to change that tonight.
Both the teams would be looking at their middle orders, albeit for different reasons. While Hyderabad can see their overreliance on their skipper David Warner and Jonny Bairstow at the top, KKR know that their best bet to come out on top would be their middle order's performance.
In Andre Russel, Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik, they probably have a dangerous middle-order, and if they fire, nothing is stopping them.
With Mitchell Marsh injured and ruled out of the tournament, SRH have one to pick from Fabian Allen, Kane Williamson and Mohammad Nabi. Williamson, if fit, would be the best bet for SRH as he would enable the middle to play around him, providing stability to the innings. Mohammad Nabi, however, could be preferred due to his all-round capabilities and more experience in the UAE pitches.
KKR would have a lot to worry about. Their bowling attack looked far from impressive in their game against Mumbai Indians. Pat Cummins went wicketless and gave away as many as 49 in his three. Kuldeep Yadav looked nowhere close to his best and could barely trouble batsmen. After a disastrous last edition, the youngster would want to get some momentum early on in the tournament.
For KKR to have any chances against the SRH openers, Pat Cummins will need to bowl out of his skin and get wickets upfront. If KKR manage to get through SRH's top three, they will fancy their chances against the inexperienced middle order.
With Karthik having already said that they don't want to be overly analytical about their loss in the opening game, KKR are unlikely to make any changes to the playing 11.
Probable XIs:
SRH: Jonny Bairstow (wk), David Warner (c), Kane Williamson/Mohammad Nabi, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Priyam Garg, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan.
KKR: Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Dinesh Karthik (wk, c), Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Nikhil Naik, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Kuldeep Yadav.
