IPL-2024: Kolkata Knight Riders to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Kolkata: RCB opt to bowl
There are two fixtures slated for today. In the first match, the Kolkata Knight Riders will take on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The match will start at 3:30 this afternoon.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru have won the toss and have opted to field.
In the summer of 2019, in the press conference room of Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, Andre Russell was facing the cameras and in an unrestrained rant went after questioning the decisions of his then-captain, Dinesh Karthik, who had come under fire following his team’s six-match losing streak in the season. Four years later, in the same room, Karthik put up a brave front for his teammates. Even after swapping the purple for red, the position isn’t too different for him with Royal Challengers Bengaluru going down five games in a row.
So what has experience of all these years taught Karthik? How does a team get out of this quicksand of defeats? “You need a lot of character in players,” was his simple response.
The fault, again, isn’t with Karthik’s performance. If anything the last time he was at a ground, he was walking back to a standing ovation from the crowd despite his team’s loss. The last time he was in front of the mic, he was asked of his aspirations to play for India again. But much like it was in 2019, the performances of his teammates aren’t helping the side much.
Glenn Maxwell had opted out of the previous game, the middle order isn’t able to control the games and the bowling lot despite all the combinations tried out hasn’t been able to deliver. After having bled a record 286 in the previous game, they now march to a ground which had the highest total chased down in its previous game.
With the Impact Substitute rule, there has been no mercy shown on the bowlers this season, and RCB’s batters – barring Karthik and to an extent Virat Kohli – just haven’t inspired enough confidence to be up with those high scores that the oppositions are posting and chasing down. To add to it, they are coming up against a side that currently boasts of the best Net Run Rate, if not taking the top position on the points table. KKR are adding the finishing touches to all their departments that have been dominating this season.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Saurav Chauhan, Dinesh Karthik(w), Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Reece Topley, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, Suyash Prabhudessai, Swapnil Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Karn Sharma, Glenn Maxwell, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar, Tom Curran, Mayank Dagar, Alzarri Joseph, Cameron Green, Manoj Bhandage, Himanshu Sharma
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Allah Ghazanfar, Sakib Hussain, Sherfane Rutherford, Chetan Sakariya, Nitish Rana, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera
