Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be looking to put an end to their losing streak when they take on confident Rajasthan Royals (RR) in an Indian Premier League match here at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
Shreyas Iyer's Kolkata are in the eight place on the points table, while Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan are placed third in the standings.
In their last face-off this season, RR registered a seven-run win over KKR, with Jos Buttler scoring his third IPL ton and Yuzvendra Chahal claiming a five-wicket haul.
KKR's top order batting has let them down on various occasions, and skipper Shreyas and Aaron Finch will look to replicate their innings from previous match against RR. Finch scored 58 off 28 and Shreyas played a stunning 85-run knock off 51 balls.
Venkatesh Iyer, who failed to impress with his skills this season, has to shift gears to contribute crucial runs on the board. The likes of Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav and Sunil Narine are in fine form and will be looking to keep the mighty Buttler quiet.
RR have orange cap holder Buttler and skipper Samson. The duo can pile miseries on KKR bowlers. Shimron Hetmyer, who looked a bit off colour in the previous matches, will look to return to his true form against KKR.
Purple cap holder Chahal will be leading the bowling unit along with Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna.
Teams (from):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Aman Khan, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammed Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (wk/c), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell. (UNI)
