Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have once again dared to dream when they were written off after the omission of key players -- skipper Shreyas Iyer and rookie all-rounder Shakib-Al-Hasan. A back-to-back win on the back of two star players Shardul Thakur and Rinku Sing has made the Kolkata side the team to beat this season.
On Thursday, they will be up against a formidable Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) that looks like a charismatic side by name but falters when they take the ground. After a reversal against Punjab Kings in Mohali, the team has emerged to be a strong contender this season. And how!
Firstly, Shardul Thakur engineered 29-ball 68 that allowed KKR to open its win bank account against the Royal Challengers Bangalore where they registered victory by a scale of 81 runs. Then came the biggest heist of the season where Rinku Singh struck 5 sixes in the last over to score 31 runs to take his team home. KKR beat defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
What makes this KKR side even more dangerous is the fact that the victories came in without any significant contribution from powerful Andre Russel or skipper Nitish Rana. One can't help but imagine the destruction the team can cause when these two start clicking at their peak.
Despite the twin wins, the KKR management would be keen to put up a team performance in the next matches to show to the other teams that it's not just a one-off or a fluke and that the team has enough firepower to take on any opposition on their day.
Russel is yet to fire having scored a lone 19-ball 35 runs against Punjab Kings and will look better his score of the last two matches where he contributed 0 and 1 runs. He was seen training hard during the team's practice session.
The KKR management has been giving chance to different players for their opening slot and a changed side come this match is palpable too as Jason Roy makes a return. Afghanistan's Rahmanullah Gurbaz, despite reaching a fighting half-century that came against RCB, would have to make way for England's maverick opener Jason Roy. Roy has that in him to get under the skin of opposition attack by repeatedly blasting boundaries as he has done for the England team. Narayan Jagadeesan may have to do the glovework behind the stumps.
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Contrarily, the SRH team have had a fair share of underwhelming performances despite being a team packed with white-ball specialists. Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal and Heinrich Klaasen, who were bought at the auction with high hopes considering they can hit the ball at go have failed miserably. The ray of hope came with Rahul Tripathi whose unbeaten 48-ball 74 marked their first win when they defeated Punjab Kings by eight wickets.
Tripati will be against his former team. He provides the stability that the team needs during the middle overs and can also hit at will, especially against the spinners. The push to SRH's morale would mean they would be willing to put up a tough fight against a rampaging Kolkata who are riding on sole player successes.
SRH would also rest their hopes on Brook and Klaasen to come out well and help SRH to score big. Brook, who has been sensational in recent times, with social media flooding with glimpses of his sixes has thus far only managed scores of 13, 3 and 13 after SRH paid a lumpsum Rs 13.25 crore.
Perhaps, tweaking the batting line-up by pushing Brook down the order would serve good for the SRH team. SRH also has a good bowling lineup. The spinners Washington Sundar and Mayank Markande form a dangerous pair that can put a leash on the opponent's scoring rate and take wickets simultaneously. Mayank struck 4 wickets and conceded a meager 15 runs in his last outing against Punjab Kings.
The pace attack too is formidable with experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Marco Jansen ready to take on any opposition. KKR will be up at number 3 if they win this match against Hyderabad.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N. Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh and Jason Roy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Aiden Markram (c), Abdul Samad, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kartik Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akeal Hosein and Anmolpreet Singh.
Match begins at 7.30pm IST.
