Kolkata: The Kolkata Knight Riders will restart their Indian Premier League campaign at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, where they will face third-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday, September 20 at 07:30 pm IST.
Eoin Morgan’s KKR is now in seventh place with only four points to their name, and they will need to start winning from the first match if they are to qualify for the playoffs. Royal Challengers Bangalore, meanwhile, sit comfortably in the top half of the league with 10 points from seven games, but a winning start is always a pleasure.
Virat Kohli’s side defeated KKR by 28 runs the last time these two teams played. In the overall head-to-head battle, however, KKR is ahead of Virat Kohli’s team. So far, the two sides had played 28 games against each other. RCB has won 13 games, while Kolkata has won 15 games.
RCB got the best of Eoin Morgan’s side when the two teams played in India for the IPL 2021. However, a lot has changed for RCB in the previous two months; the Bengaluru-based franchise has had to replace four players. Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, George Garton, and Tim David have all replaced Adam Zampa, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, and Finn Allen. Due to personal reasons, their coach, Simon Katich, stepped down and was replaced by Mike Hesson, who also serves as the RCB’s Director of Cricket Operations.
While Pat Cummins, the highest wicket-taker of the season, has been replaced by Tim Southee for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
When RCB played in the UAE last year, they did qualify for the playoffs based on net run rate. So, when the season begins, they’ll be hoping for a much stronger showing and will be considerably more relaxed about booking their place in the knockouts.
KKR PROBABLE PLAYING XI: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(wk), Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
RCB PROBABLE PLAYING XI: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Shakib al Hasan, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna, Tim Southee, Sandeep Warrier
