Dubai: It’s a big day for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as they start their campaign against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday (September 23). With Mumbai losing their opener against Chennai Super Kings, KKR would like to take that advantage and go for a kill straightaway.
MI are basically a gradual-starters as they have lost their last eight IPL opening matches since 2013 against KKR. So more than Saturday’s defeat to CSK, it’s the rustiness of many of their players that should keep the MI team management a little anxious.
KKR too will not allow their contenders to settle down as captain Karthik stated during a pre-match press conference, “It’s nice to play them early in the tournament.”
Getting into real battle after a long separation, MI big guns like skipper Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya were unable to get their timing right and Jasprit Bumrah looked a pale shadow of himself. With Bumrah going for 43 runs in his four overs, MI would be having a Plan B ready against a side that features Andre Russell, who alone can smash any attack.
However, the Mumbai outfit will draw their confidence from the head-to-head record against KKR, which reads 19-6 in their favour. KKR, on the other hand, should be encouraged by the fact that all their likely four foreigners are coming with matches under their umbrella. While West Indians Sunil Narine and Russell have performed modest shows in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), England skipper Eoin Morgan and Aussie pacer Pat Cummins (they are two of the most valuable players of the tournament) have played in the white-ball series in England.
The keepers have kept a fair bit of grass on the wickets at all the three venues so that they last the whole tournament under extreme hot conditions. Thus, the MI batting will have a job at hand in handling the express KKR pace battalion.
