IPL-2024: Kolkata Knight Riders to take on Rajasthan Royals in Kolkata: RR opt to bowl
In IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders will clash with Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The match will begin at 7:30 this evening. Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and have opted to field.
Today clash between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders would be over at the Eden Gardens, irrespective of the result, the two teams are expected to be holding the top two positions on the points table mid-way through their respective league-stage campaign of IPL 2024.
For as much as it’s a testament to their dominance in the tournament so far, they would be well aware that it counts for little. Royals witnessed that slump from the high position last season, much like KKR had done in 2019. The latter have even seen the reversal in 2021, when they stormed from the bottom of the table to reach the final. The events of the recent past would well be a lesson for both teams that at best it’s still just a job half done.
But as the season is progressing, Knight Riders are slowly coming into their own, with their dominance in all three departments growing. Even a few niggles and injuries to their players – Nitish Rana and Harshit Rana, saw Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Vaibhav Arora seemingly filling in for them. Phil Salt and Mitchell Starc took some time to find their groove, and are yet to fire at their best, but managed to give a reasonable account of the threat they possess.
Royals, on the other hand, will be coming into the clash at the back of two nervy games: one won off the penultimate ball and the other lost of the last. Sanju Samson, the Royals skipper, was at a loss of words as to how the team found themselves in a position that they could have avoided. To make matters worse, as the hot sun is beating down and the number of trips to the airports has lost count, their players are picking niggles and dropping off.
Much unlike KKR, Royals don’t have a similar depth in their batting and bowling, with the likes of R Ashwin being their best bowling all-rounder and Riyan Parag being their best batting all-rounder – far from the quality and quantity KKR possess in their line-up.
But with two in-form teams set to battle, with the top spot up for grabs at the mid-point competition, it promises to deliver quality viewing.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals Squad: Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Keshav Maharaj, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Abid Mushtaq, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jos Buttler, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Singh Rathore
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Allah Ghazanfar, Sakib Hussain, Sherfane Rutherford, Chetan Sakariya, Nitish Rana, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera.
