Kolkata Knight Riders would look to put their woeful form behind them as they bid to start on winning ways when they take on Rajasthan Royals in an Indian Premier League match on Tuesday.
Kolkata Knight Riders would look to put their woeful form behind them as they bid to start on winning ways when they take on Rajasthan Royals in an Indian Premier League match on Tuesday. KKR is struggling in their batting department with skipper Gambhir having been dismissed for a nought thrice in the four matches played. He managed to score a single run in Kolkata`s last match against leaders Kings XI Punjab, which they lost by 23 runs.
The 2012 champions might possess one of the stronger batting units but except for veteran Jacques Kallis and Manish Pandey, rest of the batsmen have fallen flat. Once known to terrorise the bowlers with his hard hitting, Yusuf Pathan has cut a sorry figure in this year’s IPL regime.
After a bright start in the tournament (victory over defending champions Mumbai Indians) Kolkata have found success difficult to come by. Had it not been that stunning catch by Chris Lynn to send back A B de Villiers, Kolkata would have lost their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 24. With the likes of Sunil Narine in fine touch and the rest of the bowling department comparatively doing well, Kolkata would be hoping to end the UAE tour on a winning note.
On the other half, Rajasthan who also began their campaign with a victory too crumbled under pressure with consecutive losses before that morale lifting win against Bangalore. The Royals are level on points with Kolkata on four and with the top order struggling for runs; Shane Watson and co. must solve this issue immediately. The likes of Abhishek Nayar and Ajinkya Rahane have failed to cash in their opportunities.
Rajasthan`s bowling department remains a plus point going into the game. Except against the rampaging Kings XI Punjab, the Rajasthan bowlers have restricted their opponents to modest totals and will be interesting to watch how they come against the likes of Gambhir and Kallis.
The Teams (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (capt.), Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Piyush Chawla, Pat Cummins, Debabrata Das, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Sayan Mondal, Veer Pratap Singh, Andre Russell, Ryan ten Doeschate, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav.
Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson (capt.), Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Kane Richardson, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Tim Southee, Pravin Tambe, Ankit Sharma, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Stuart Binny, Unmukt Chand, Kevon Cooper, Ben Cutting, James Faulkner, Brad Hodge, Deepak Hooda, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Vikramjeet Malik, Karun Nair, Rahul Tewatia, Dishant Yagnik.
