Kolkata Knight Riders will look to bring their campaign back on track when they take on table-toppers Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League in Chennai on Sunday.
After the recent India-England series, captain Virat Kohli and Eoin Morgan will resume their rivalry, with the Bengaluru franchise holding a slight edge over Kolkata after their two wins from as many outings.
The World Cup-winning English skipper will be keen to bring KKR back on track after a familiar middle-order collapse cost them the game against Mumbai Indians.
Nervous breakdown: How KKR got lost in a maze of their own making against MI
After two ordinary seasons, the Knight Riders started their campaign in emphatic fashion, ticking all the boxes against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
But against their nemesis MI, Kolkata’s middle-order collapsed dramatically and the team suffered its 12th loss in 13 matches.
IPL 2021: Against MI, did Kolkata choke or panic?
Morgan’s astute captaincy in using his bowling resources was the highlight as KKR had bowled out MI for a modest 152.
In his new role of bowling at the death, Andre Russell has taken six wickets at an impressive average of 7.83, but has failed to deliver with the bat. With 14 runs from two matches, the big-hitting Jamaican has looked a shadow of his past.
While Nitish Rana has impressed the most in the batting department, young opener Shubman Gill has faltered after impressive starts, and KKR would hope the he fires in the coming days.
Head-to-head
| Mat | RCB wins | KKR wins |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | 12 | 14 |
On a slow Chepauk pitch where batting at the death has been a concern, KKR’s bowling has been a revelation with Morgan cleverly using his resources.
Against the star-studded RCB who are yet to fire in unison this season, KKR’s bowling would once again look to make an impact. They might be tempted to bring in Kuldeep Yadav in place of veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has bowled just the opening over in each of the two matches.
With a strong batting line-up in Kohli, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell and the talented youngster Devdutt Padikkal, RCB are yet to perform to their full potential.
Even so, RCB have won both their matches so far with new signing Maxwell holding fort in the middle and the likes of Shahbaz Ahmed and Harshal Patel making the difference in bowling.
Bought for Rs 14.25 crore in the 2021 auction, Maxwell has bounced back from a poor last season in the UAE.
On a difficult batting wicket, Maxwell’s 59 – his first IPL half-century since 2016 – was the cornerstone before Bengal left-arm spinner Shahbaz turned it around against SRH in the 17th over, taking three wickets for one run.
In their first match, Harshal Patel’s five-for set it up before de Villiers’ 48 sealed a two-wicket win over defending champions MI.
Squads
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (capt), AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Kane Richardson, Washington Sundar, Pavan Deshpande, Joshua Philippe, Shahbaz Ahamad, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Kyle Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell, Rajat Patidar, Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Dan Christian, KS Bharat, Suyash Prabhudessai, Daniel Sams and Harshal Patel.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (capt), Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi.
Match Starts: 3.30pm.
(With inputs from PTI)