IPL 2018 Fantasy Guru: What your team should look like for KKR vs CSK
Subs made – 3; Subs remaining – 33 (for an uninterrupted match)
Shreyas Iyer out – Suresh Raina in
Colin Munro out – Shane Watson in
Jofra Archer out - Andre Russell in
(Uncapped) Krishnappa Gowtham out – Nitish Rana in/Shivam Mavi in (if Rana is unfit)
Uncapped preference order: Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, KM Asif, Shubman Gill
Captain – Suresh Raina
Captaincy preference order: Suresh Raina, Andre Russell, Shane Watson
Differential – Robin Uthappa
Multipliers remaining – 3
Guru’s team ahead of KKR vs CSK: V Kohli, R Sharma, S Yadav, S Samson, I Kishan, S Raina, A Russell, S Watson, N Rana, A Khan, M Markande
As Dinesh Karthik goes head to head with MS Dhoni, you get a chance to play your own game of fantasy - StarPick is the new one on the block. Stand a chance to win exciting cash prizes of up to Rs. 100,000. What are you waiting for? Create your StarPick team now.
There is a weather threat to the match, so whatever substitutions you do, make sure you keep that in mind. The one good thing, however, is Chennai Super Kings are playing twice in the next three matches, and bringing in their players wouldn’t cost you much even if this fixture is rained out.
Kolkata Knight Riders are a spin-heavy unit, so with Ambati Rayudu pushed down to No.4, Suresh Raina becomes CSK’s best pick for the match. Shane Watson, at this stage of his career, is, at best, an acceptable player of spin bowling, but you can’t risk leaving out an all-rounder who opens the batting when the Super Kings fit into a Schedule Mantra round. Even a couple of wickets and 50 runs combined in these two matches will fetch you the points worth making the substitution.
MS Dhoni looks in sublime touch, but No.5 is too low to even give it a thought. Rayudu could get demoted for Dhoni if the top 3 last the first 12 overs, so I am not bringing him in either.
From the Knight Riders side, Andre Russell might not have it as easy as he had it against CSK last time around, with Dhoni now having the extra pace of Lungi Ngidi, but unless it is a truncated match, don’t even think about leaving him out today.
While Chris Lynn hasn’t looked comfortable, he has still found a way to score runs. Robin Uthappa, on the other hand, is the exact opposite - looks million dollars, against spinners in particular, but just hasn’t been able to convert his quickfire 30s and 40s into a really big score. They may be enough for his team, but in fantasy, you would expect more.
Sunil Narine’s form with the ball has been pretty poor in the last 4 matches, which rules him out as well. With Nitish Rana (if fit) getting in as the uncapped pick and Kuldeep Yadav likely to be negotiated by Raina and Rayudu, it closes out the day for me.