The City of Joy- Kolkata- is in readiness to be doused with IPL fever as Kolkata Knight Riders will host Sunrisers from Hyderabad in a clash between biggest buys of IPL history. The big Australians- Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins- who do get together to trump opposition for their nation, will compete against each other to take their franchise past the line. Pat Cummins will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad while Mitchell Starc will spearhead the bowling attack of Kolkata Knight Riders.
In 2023, KKR had a mixed season when they, for once, had a chance to get into the top four, while SRH had to take the wooden spoon as they had won just two matches in the last 10 matches.
KKR will be bolstered by the return of their captain Shreyas Iyer and the emergence of Rinku Singh in the past one year. The much awaited return of Mitchell Starc will add a great value to an already worthy attack consisting of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarti.
With Mitchell Starc, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine must be certain in the playing XI, KKR will have a lot of deliberations over choosing a fourth foreigner among Phil Salt, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sherfane Rutherford. It remains to see if Shreyas Iyer will take the field as he has had injury concerns lately.
On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad will be hoping for a turnaround under the World Cup winning captain Pat Cummins. The biggest challenge for them is within their squad- to choose three foreigners alongside Pat Cummins. Likes of Heinrich Klassen, Marco Jansen, Glen Phillips, Aiden Markaram, Travis Head, Fazalhaq Farooqi are all capable enough to lure the management to get them into the playing XI.
The Indian bunch of cricketers is the biggest advantage for Sunrisers Hyderabad who can help them turn into a formidable line up if foreigners are chosen precisely.
Probable Playing XIs-
Kolkata Knight Riders-
Phil Salt (wk)*, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer ©, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell*, Sunil Narine*, Mitchell Starc*, Harshit Rana, Chetan Sakaria, Varun Chakravarthy.
Impact players- Suyash Sharma/ Manish Pandey
Sunrisers Hyderabad-
Travis Head*, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markaram*, Heinrich Klassen (wk)*, Washington Sundar, Pat Cummins ©*, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
Impact players- Abdul Samad/ Jaydev Unadkat
Weather and Pitch Report-
Scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon but expected to remain clear throughout the match in the evening. Temperature during match time will hover around 25 degree celsius with humidity about 75%.
Pitch at Eden Gardens is a batsmen’s preferred place, with considerable help to spin bowlers towards the end of the game. In the previous season, teams batting first were able to post a good total on the board with the score crossing 200 runs thrice. Winning the toss and bat first should be the way to go for Par Cummins and Shreyas Iyer.
Stats Corner & Interesting things-
- Hyderabad and Kolkata have faced each other in 25 matches in IPL. Out of these 25 games, Hyderabad have won 9 whereas Kolkata have come out victorious on 16 occasions.
- In the last 8 matches between the two teams, KKR emerged victorious 6 times.
- Last time Mitchell Starc played an IPL match was back in 2015 for RCB.
- Hard hitting Heinrich Klassen is just 20 runs short of 4000 T20 runs.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar needs 3 wickets to reach 450 wickets in T20 cricket.
- For the first time ever, Travis Head and Mitchell Starc will be up against each other batting and bowling.
(Source- mykhel.com, cricmetric.com)
Match details-
Date & Time- 7:30 PM IST, 23 March 2024
Venue- Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Live Broadcast- Star Sports Network
Live Streaming- Jio Cinema App
Predicted Dream XI Team-
