Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be commencing their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 campaign on Wednesday against The Mumbai Indians (MI), who suffered a loss in the tournament opener against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). KKR has shored up their batting and bowling for the current season as they had also enhanced the coaching staff with the addition of Brendon McCullum.
KKr looking balanced to win their third IPL title, however, skipper, Dinesh Karthik reckons that the team will be happy to be facing a team of MI’s caliber early on but one can’t just deny the fact that they have an awful record against the Mumbai Indians. So far in 25 matches, they have played together, it’s Mumbai who has won 19 times while KKR has tasted victory just six times.
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With Mumbai having started their campaign in a losing note (which they usually do), they will be raring to make a comeback. KKR comes into the game with an enviable middle-order. Eoin Morgan at four, Andre Russell at five, and Karthik at six give Knight Riders a solid batting order. The key, however, will be how the bowling unit fares.
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The team winning the toss will choose to field and that isn’t a surprise. The dew factor can be a concerning factor both the captains with Karthik revealing it’s been hard to predict if and when it’ll come down.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
The players who have arrived from England – Morgan, Tom Banton, and Pat Cummins – will end their quarantine on the eve of the game and can be expected to be available for selection. The four overseas players are automatic picks while the tussle will be between the Indian fast bowlers.
Probable XI: Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (c,wk), Pat Cummins, Kuldeep Yadav, Kamlesh Nagarkoti/Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna.
Mumbai Indians (MI)
Saurabh Tiwary did well in the opening game and he will be expected to keep Ishan Kishan out of the playing XI. If Coulter-Nile does make a recovery, it won’t be surprising to see him replacing James Pattinson. There are not much changes expected in the MI team.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary/Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile/James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.
