The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face off against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Match 42 of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens on Friday, April 26.
With five wins in seven matches, the Knight Riders are flying high in the tournament. They have won three of their four games at their home venue and will back themselves to beat a struggling Kings outfit that have garnered just four points so far.
KKR's squad for IPL 2024: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sunil Narine, Phil Salt, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Allah Ghazanfar, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain.
On that note, here is KKR's predicted playing XII (including one impact sub) for Match 42 of IPL 2024 against PBKS.
Openers: Phil Salt (wk) and Sunil Narine
KKR's openers have been incredibly destructive in IPL 2024. Phil Salt gave his team a blazing start in the last game against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, while Sunil Narine might need to find a way to counter the blueprint that opposition bowlers might use against him.
Middle Order: Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, and Rinku Singh
Shreyas Iyer's strike rate hasn't been anything to write home about this season, but he will hope that his half-century in the previous game fires him to bigger and better things.
Nitish Rana is seemingly struggling to make his way into the side, with KKR opting to field Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer and Ramandeep Singh ahead of him in the middle order. That might continue against PBKS, with Ramandeep playing a delightful cameo at the death recently.
Andre Russell and Rinku Singh will be the key men to watch out for in that phase of the innings.
Lower Order: Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Mitchell Starc has been arguably the worst bowler on display in IPL 2024, but KKR are likely to hand him a long rope given the amount they invested in him. The Aussie left-armer desperately needs a turnaround in his form.
Kolkata found a way to sub in Suyash Sharma in the last game, but the leg-spinner couldn't hit the right lengths. They might instead pick Vaibhav Arora this time, with the ball likely to move a bit under the lights.
Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy will make up the rest of the bowling attack.
KKR's predicted playing XII (inc impact sub): Phil Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Other impact sub candidates: Anukul Roy, Chetan Sakariya, Sakib Hussain, Manish Pandey, Suyash Sharma.
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