Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals will lock horns in a mid-table tussle on the Eden Gardens right here on Thursday, in a bid to enhance their probabilities of qualifying for the Indian Premier League playoffs.
KKR, having gained its final two matches, will look to maintain its revival, whereas RR, which has misplaced three on the trot, might want to arrest its downward slide.
The host will proceed to rely upon its dependable fingers in batting. Openers Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz – who underlined his value in batting and maintaining, particularly within the final outing the place he took some sensational catches towards Punjab Kings – and the next batters Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh and all-rounder Andre Russell can punish any assault.
KKR depends closely on its spinners, led by Varun Chakravarthy. It would require its pacers to carry out tidily at its dwelling floor, which has seen high-scoring duels.
RR too has spinners of the caliber of Yuzvendra Chahal and R. Ashwin who present tooth to its bowling assault. But the facet wants its pacers, equivalent to Trent Boult and Sandeep Sharma, to offer ample help.
RR, regardless of having a potent assault, has leaked runs profusely. The Sanju Samson-led group, which gathered 200-plus totals thrice in its final 4 matches however misplaced two of those three fixtures, should discover a option to defend its mixture.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler and Sanju shoulder most duty in RR’s formidable batting line-up.
Tied on 10 factors with three matches to go, the margin of error is minimal for either side.
SQUADS
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldip Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Adam Zampa, Riyan Parag, Jason Holder, Obed McCoy, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Akash Vasisht, KC Cariappa, KM Asif, Kuldeep Sen, Donavon Ferreira, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jason Roy, Anukul Roy, N Jagadeesan, Lockie Ferguson, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Johnson Charles, David Wiese, Aarya Desai
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com