Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will seek home comfort in their bid to return to winning ways when they face a depleted Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League match in Kolkata on Sunday.
The match will be KKR's first of the five at home on the trot and the Gautam Gambhir-mentored side will be fully aware this can prove decisive to clinch a play-off spot for the first time since 2021.
In the points’ tally, nothing separates the two teams; both have three wins each, and lost their last outings.
KKR's over-reliance on the Caribbean ageing duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell was exposed by defending champions Chennai Super Kings when they lost their last match by seven wickets.
Narine (27) and Russell (10) failed with the bat and the team, which had posted two 200-plus scores from three matches on the back of the Caribbean duo's blazing form, managed an under par 137 for 9 at Chennai.
That sums up KKR's batting, which has relied on some odd fireworks in the absence of anchor Nitish Rana (finger injury), who is slated to sit out of another match.
In the spotlight since the beginning of the season, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer has failed to impress and his scores give an abysmal picture -- 0, 39 not out, 18 and 34.
Venkatesh Iyer, their another designated batter, has three single digit scores this season to go with one odd fifty against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the team, it seems, doesn't have a clear role for him.
From batting at No. 3 in their IPL opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Iyer was seen in the finisher's role at No. 7 and No. 5 in their last two matches.
Ramandeep Singh also had a lean run after an impressive 35 against SRH.
2022 Under-19 World Cup-winning Angkrish Raghuvanshi has impressed the most following his 54 against Delhi Capitals. He will like to return among the runs after failing to convert his start against CSK.
The most-talked about signing Mitchell Starc's poor form with the ball has been the talk of the town.
The Aussie speed gun has an economy of 11.00 and took his first wicket of this IPL season against DC after giving away 100 runs in the first two matches.
Having come as Impact Subs, left-arm orthodox spinner Anukul Roy has been impressive and he would like to forge formidable partnership with Narine.
While KKR will be overwhelming favourites at Eden, LSG, with their unassuming approach, will not give up easily, even as they will miss their pace sensation Mayank Yadav for a second successive match.
Recovering from a side strain that ruled him out of their match against Gujarat Titans, Mayank is doing "good" but skipper KL Rahul has said that he may take "a couple of more games before coming back".
Mayank's replacement Arshad Khan failed to impress, conceding 34 runs from 3.1 overs as they failed to defend 167 at home against DC last evening.
Mohsin Khan, who claimed 2/34 against Punjab Kings, could be a perfect replacement but it remains to be seen if he's fully recovered from his hamstring injury that had sidelined the left-arm pacer.
The team owned by Kolkata-based industrialist Sanjeev Goenka will hope for a much better show after mustering an average 167/7 against DC on Friday.
The likes of Quinton De Kock and Rahul will look to return among the runs, while they also boast of a powerful line-up down the order with the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.
That they also have a formidable slow bowling line-up in Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya will pose some tough questions for KKR’s batters.
Squads (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (captain), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (captain), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Shamar Joseph, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry and Mohd. Arshad Khan.
Match starts: 3.30pm.
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