The two heavy-duty teams Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will be locking horns with each other in the first super Sunday game. However, David Warner will be the biggest crowd pullers for last year’s runners-up as they get their IPL 2019 campaign underway when they face KKR at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Warner will be returning to the side after missing the last edition due to his suspension in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal. He will be raring to get some game time in order to stake a claim in Australia’s ICC World Cup 2019 squad.
Under the captaincy of Warner, Hyderabad won their maiden title in 2016. However, despite his return, Kane Williamson will be leading the team even though there are question marks on his fitness after he sustained a shoulder injury last week during New Zealand’s Test series win against Bangladesh.
For Kolkata, a lot of attention will be on Dinesh Karthik, who will be looking to make a pile of runs this season in order to fix his World Cup berth. It was at this venue last year when Hyderabad knocked out Kolkata in the Qualifiers and went on to lose the final against Chennai. Hence, KKR will be looking to avenge their defeat this time and it will become a cracker of the game for the fans.
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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
As they have done in the last couple of season, Kolkata is expected to promote Sunil Narine up the order along with Chris Lynn. The youngster Shubman Gill has the chance to step up in the middle order along with Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa, who are favorites to make the rest of the middle order and because of that, a lot of responsibility on Karthik to fire on all cylinders like last season in which he scored 498 runs to be the team’s highest run-scorer.
Kolkata has been grappling with several injury issues to their pacers – Kalmesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and Anrich Nortje – ruled out of the season due to injury. The flamboyant all-rounder, Andre Russell, and Prasidh Krishan, who was one of Kerala’s brightest spots in the Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season, will share the new ball. In Narine and Kuldeep Yadav, they have two capable spinners with a variety of tricks between them.
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Probable XI: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Shubhman Gill, Dinesh Karthik (C/WK), Andre Russell, Carlos Braithwaite, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Prasidh Krishna
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
It will be interesting to see who partners Warner to open the innings after Hyderabad traded Shikhar Dhawan with Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Abhishek Sharma. Kane Williamson is expected to be a likely replacement if he is available to play. However, if Williamson plays, then either Bairstow or Shakib Al Hasan will have to miss out in the playing XI.
With Nadeem left at their disposal, Hyderabad is likely to opt for Afghan allrounder Mohammad Nabi/ Shakib. Basil Thampi and Khaleel Ahmed will be zeroed in to assist Bhuvneshwar in the pace department.
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Probable XI: David Warner, Kane Williamson (C), Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed
