IPL 2018 Fantasy Guru: What your team should look like for KKR vs KXIP
Subs used – 1; Subs remaining – 54
Ben Stokes out – Chris Gayle in
(uncapped) Rahul Tripathi out – Nitish Rana in
Uncapped player preference order: Nitish Rana, Mayank Agarwal, Shivam Mavi
Captaincy preference order – Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Sunil Narine
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Guru’s team ahead of KKR vs KXIP match: KL Rahul, C Gayle, N Rana, R Uthappa, S Dhawan, S Samson, S Watson, S Narine, A Russell, M Markande, S Kaul
Kolkata Knight Riders play next after a gap of seven matches, and so with Robin Uthappa, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell already in my team, and Nitish Rana getting in as the uncapped pick for the day, I have no reason to consider any of their other players.
It helps that there aren't any real options left in the side either: Dinesh Karthik bats too low, Chris Lynn is yet to find his feet this season, and Tom Curran and Kuldeep Yadav are, at best, steady scoring options.
Moving on to Kings XI Punjab, you either need new-ball assistance – in the air or off the seam – or raw pace to get Chris Gayle out on a good batting deck. I kept him out against Sunrisers Hyderabad because in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake, they had bowlers who are capable of doing both.
It turned out to be Gayle's lucky day, as Stanlake didn’t play the match and Bhuvneshwar only bowled a couple of balls to him in his new-ball spell. If given a choice again, I will do the same, as that is how logic works.
I don’t, however, find anyone in the Kolkata Knight Riders bowling unit to do that today. Shivam Mavi has a bit of pace, but he is too young, and Tom Curran is more of a death overs specialist. Gayle is smart enough to take risks against Sunil Narine, a bowler he knows he isn’t really comfortable facing.
So, unless someone bowls a peach, Gayle is again going to be amongst the runs. KL Rahul, needless to say, is as good a fantasy option as there is in this fixture.
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