IPL 2016 KKR vs GL Playing 11: Today’s Probable XI for Kolkata Knight Riders vs Gujarat Lions
The Kolkata Knight Riders, sitting on top of the table welcome the Gujarat Lions at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. While the Knights have notched up two back to back wins after losing two games on the trot and are looking almost certain to make the playoffs, the Gujarat Lions, the early pace setters in the tournament seemed to have lost their way suddenly losing three back to back games prior to their visit to the Eden Gardens. The top two teams in the IPL face off in a crunch tie, while the Knights will look to continue their winning form, Gujarat will look to be back to their best and upset the high-flying Knights and silence the Eden crowd.
Kolkata faces Gujarat, debutants in the tournament for the first time in the history of the IPL. While Kolkata has looked like a well-oiled machine, Gujarat meanwhile has been a breath of fresh air. Gambhir has led the Knight Riders from the front with his performances with the bat and the bowling has always been Kolkata’s strong suit.
The Gujarat batting side is one the best in the IPL but has strangely looked out of sorts in the last three. Their bowling though has been very compact and has seldom leaked runs.
Let’s see how the Knights and the Lions could possibly line up for this game.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Batsmen: Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir, the opening pair of the Knight Riders have been in outstanding form. If not both, at least one has looked to anchor the innings. Manish Pandey missed a couple of games due to health issues and is yet to fire with the bat this season and KKR fans will hope the talented batsman from Karnataka will come up with the goods against Gujarat if the opening pair fail.
Suryakumar Yadav, the vice-captain of the Kolkata outfit has had to be content with playing little cameos with the bat, barring a match winning innings against the Supergiants. Yusuf Pathan played a brilliant innings at the Chinnaswamy and KKR fans will hope the Pathan keeps on firing against the Lions too.
All-Rounders: Shakib Al-Hasan and Andre Russell are both regarded as great all-rounders in the International circuit. While Russell is topping the charts with 13 wickets under his belt and is wearing the Purple Cap, the Calypso giant has also entertained with the bat hitting huge sixes.
Shakib hasn’t been up to the mark with the bat this season, but the Bangladeshi all-rounder has been hard to put away and has an economy of 6.5.
Bowlers: Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel will share the pace bowling attack with Russell. Umesh has proved to be very expensive in the last couple of games and while he has picked up wickets, he has also gone for runs.
Morkel too has also been among the wickets. The pace attack of Russell, Yadav and Morkel have 30 wickets among them and the success of the pacers is one of the many reasons for the Knight Riders topping the tables.
Sunil Narine had proved really expensive at the Chinnaswamy and had been rested against the Kings XI and the man from the Caribbean might make his way back to playing 11 at the expense of the veteran Aussie, Brad Hogg. Piyush Chawla has been a regular for Kolkata and the leggie is likely to start against the Lions.
Probable Playing 11: Robin Uthappa (wk), Gautam Gambhir (C), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al-Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Suryakumar Yadav, Andre Russell, Umesh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel.
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