Sports

Challenge of Punjab Kings in front of KKR struggling with injury and lack of foreign players

Hampered by injuries and the unavailability of some foreign players, Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders will aim to start the season on a winning note when they take on the field for their Indian Premier League opener here on Saturday. Both these teams have always had strong players in the IPL but their performance on the field has not been that impressive. Punjab Kings are still waiting for their first title while KKR’s team has been champion twice under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir.

Last season, Punjab was sixth and KKR seventh in the 10-team competition. This season both the teams will be led by new captains. While the experienced Shikhar Dhawan will lead Punjab, KKR have relied on domestic star Nitish Rana to replace the injured Shreyas Iyer. On paper, the Punjab team looks a bit stronger than KKR, which will also have the advantage of the home ground. However, the team will miss Johnny Bairstow of England.

Bairstow has been ruled out of the entire season due to injury. The franchise has included Matthew Short, the best player of the season in the Big Bash League, in place of Bairstow. It is expected that this Australian batsman will open the innings with Dhawan. Liam Livingstone (injured) and Kagiso Rabada (with the national team) will miss the initial few matches which could affect the Punjab Kings’ momentum.

The team, however, spent Rs 185 million on all-rounder Sam Curran, who is known for his impressive performances with the ball and bat. The team will also have the option of Sikandar Raza of Zimbabwe who is in excellent form with the bat and also bowls off-spin. Apart from Arshdeep Singh, the team also does not have any impressive Indian fast bowler. In such a situation, coach Trevor Bayliss would expect better performance from Rishi Dhawan and leg-spinner Rahul Chahar.

Kolkata Knight Riders will also rely heavily on their coach Chandrakant Pandit, who is a masterful strategist and in the absence of regular skipper Iyer, Rana will be the one to execute his plans. With Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das missing from the opening match due to national commitments, KKR’s performance will largely depend on the West Indies duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. The team has other quality all-rounders in David Voisey and Venkatesh Iyer.

If top-order batting is a concern for the team, then KKR have a strong bowling unit. Umesh Yadav will lead the pace attack while Shardul Thakur and Tim Southee will support him. Narine and Varun Chakravarthy will handle the spin department.

Teams: Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Raj Bawa, Rahul Chahar, Sam Curran, Rishi Dhawan, Nathan Ellis, Harpreet Brar, Harpreet Singh, V. Kaverappa, Mohit Rathi, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa , M Shah Rukh Khan, Jitesh Sharma, Shivam Singh, Matthew Short, Sikandar Raza, Atharva Tayde, Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Vaibhav Arora, Lockie Ferguson, Harshit Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Liton Das , Mandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Rinku Singh, Tim Southee, Suyash Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakraborty, David Wyse, Umesh Yadav. The match will start at 03:30 PM.

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