Playing 11 of players to have featured for both KKR & PBKS in the IPL ft. Dinesh Karthik & Varun Chakaravarthy
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are all set to host the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2024 on Friday (April 26) at Eden Gardens.
KKR are currently second in IPL 2024 points table with five wins in seven appearances. They are coming into this game on the back of one-run victory over the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, PBKS stands ninth with only two victories in eight league games. In their last outing, the Kings failed to defend their total of 142 and would look to come up with an improved performance.
Historically, many players have played for both KKR and PBKS in the cash-rich league. Let us check out the best playing XI among those players.
Top-order - Aaron Finch, Chris Gayle, Wriddhiman Saha
Former Australian skipper Aaron Finch played a solitary season for the Punjab Kings in 2018 and scored 46 runs. In 2022, he played for the Kolkata Knight Riders and contributed 58 runs.
One of the legendary players to feature in the cash-rich league, Chris Gayle played two seasons for KKR (2009-10) and scored 88 runs. He ended his career with PBKS (2018-21), scoring 1339 runs.
Wriddhiman Saha began his IPL career with KKR (2008-10) and scored 298 runs. He scored 1,115 runs for Punjab (2014-17), while slamming 115* off 55 balls in the IPL 2014 final against KKR.
Middle-order - Mandeep Singh, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Moises Henriques
Mandeep Singh had multiple stints for KKR (2010, 2023) and PBKS (2011-14, 2019-21), where he mustered over 1,000 runs in 63 innings.
At No.5 and No. 6 will be former Kolkata captains Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik, respectively. Morgan played for KKR (2011-13, 2020-21) and Punjab (2017) and scored 1,160 runs, with 995 runs coming for the Knight Riders.
Meanwhile, Karthik plied his trade for Punjab (2011) and Kolkata (2018-21) and amassed more than 1,400 runs in 71 innings.
Moises Henriques will be the fifth bowling option and an experienced batter for this team. He played a total of nine games (4 with KKR in 2009 and 5 with PBKS in 2021) and scored 210 runs and scalped 25 wickets.
Bowlers - Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Piyush Chawla, Brett Lee
Right-arm pacer Mohammed Shami represented KKR in 2013 and picked up a solitary wicket in three games. However, it was his induction into PBKS setup in 2019, which changed his career. Shami went on to 58 wickets in three seasons until 2021 for the Punjab-based franchise.
Varun Chakaravarthy played only a solitary game for PBKS in 2019, but has found his home in KKR since 2020. He has picked up more than 60 wickets for the Kolkata-based franchise.
Piyush Chawla started his IPL career with Punjab in 2008 and picked over 80 wickets until 2013 season. Then, the following six seasons saw the wily spinner securing 66 scalps for Kolkata.
Brett Lee played 13 games for PBKS (2008-10) and 25 games for KKR (2011-13) and picked up a total of 25 wickets.