The 54th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 will be played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) on 7th October at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. KKR has won 6 of their 13 matches so far, and they are currently placed at the fourth position on the points table. On the other hand, RR has only managed to win 5 of their 13 matches so far, and they are standing second last on the table currently.
IN their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Dubai, KKR won the game by 6 wickets. While batting first, SRH managed to put 115 runs on the board, and KKR managed to chase it down in the last over of the game. On the other hand, RR suffered a thrashing defeat against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Sharjah. While batting first, Rajasthan Royals could put up only 90 runs on the board, which was easily chased down by the Mumbai Indians in the 9th over itself and 8 wickets to spare.
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KKR and RR have locked horns with each other 23 times in the history of IPL so far, where Kolkata Knight Riders won 12 matches while Rajasthan Royals secured 11 wins. The last time they played against each other in this season in India, Rajasthan Royals defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Both Andre Russell and Lockie Ferguson have resumed training and they will be expected to be match-ready. However, Eoin Morgan to sway away from his 2 pacers-3 spinners combination and Shakib Al Hasan can be replaced by Ben Cutting, with Nitish Rana available to fill in the spin overs if needed. If Andre Russell is match-fit, he comes straight in. Sunil Narine also enjoys a good record against Samson, so he can be expected to bowl an over inside the first six if the RR captain comes in early.
Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Shakib Al Hasan/Andre Russell/Ben Cutting, Dinesh Karthik(w), Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee/Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy
Rajasthan Royals (RR)
Evin Lewis suffered an injury on his left ankle against MI and needed to be tended by the physio. Chris Morris has picked 19 wickets across 13 games against KKR, averaging 18 and enjoying a strike rate of 15. Lewis and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been the fastest-scoring opening pair in this edition, but with Lewis’ injury, RR might go back to Liam Livingstone.
Probable XI: Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Shivam Dube, Glenn Phillips, David Miller/Liam Livingstone, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, Kuldip Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya
Fantasy XI Suggestion 1:
Sanju Samson (VC), Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer (C), Sunil Narine, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakravarthy, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya
Fantasy XI Suggestion 2:
Sanju Samson, Evin Lewis (C), Glenn Phillips, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakravarthy (VC), Mustafizur Rahman, Tim Southee
