IPL 2020: Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders – Probable playing XI and team news

Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), whose IPL 2020 campaign is turning out to be a forgettable one so far with 5 losses in their 6 matches, will face off against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the first of the two matches in the second double-header weekend of the tournament. KXIP suffered a massive defeat against […]
 
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IPL 2020: Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders – Probable playing XI and team news

Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), whose IPL 2020 campaign is turning out to be a forgettable one so far with 5 losses in their 6 matches, will face off against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the first of the two matches in the second double-header weekend of the tournament. KXIP suffered a massive defeat against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai a couple of days ago, while KKR banked on a dismal batting performance from CSK to register a 10-run win on Wednesday.

KKR sailed through to a comfortable 6-wicket win the last time these two teams met at Mohali. Batting first, KXIP, with the help of heavy contributions from the middle-order and 55 from Sam Curran posted 183 on the board. A solid, unbeaten half-century from Shubman Gill opening the batting, supported well enough by the rest of the top 5 batsmen helped KKR chase down the target with 2 overs to spare.

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KXIP v KKR: Head-To-Head

KKR have had a massive upper hand in clashes against the Kings XI Punjab, winning 17 out of the 25 matches being played between the two teams, which includes an IPL final from 2014. The Head-To-Head record has improved quite a bit for KKR in their last 5 encounters against Punjab, as they won 4 out of them spanning from 2017 to 2019.

Team News: Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)

Anil Kumble said during KXIP’s previous game against SRH that the team management had intended to play Chris Gayle ahead of Nicholas Pooran, but the veteran West Indies opener suffered from food poisoning ahead of the game and had to be left out. Pooran, meanwhile, batted in a tough chase of 202 like his life depended upon his wicket, smashing the SRH spinners for several sixes on his way to a knock of 77.

With Pooran effectively sealing his spot with that knock, Glenn Maxwell is the likelier candidate to sit out for today, and Prabhsimran Singh, who was brought in as a specialist wicketkeeper to cover up for Pooran, might have to hand the gloves back to the Trinidadian again.

IPL 2020: Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders – Probable playing XI and team news

Probable XI: Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (c), Nicholas Pooran (wk), Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Sheldon Cottrell, Mohammed Shami

ALSO READ: IPL 2020: KXIP vs KKR – Game Plan 1 – KL Rahul at No.3 if Chris Gayle plays

Team News: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Rahul Tripathi’s success in scoring runs opening the batting has helped KKR solve the opening partnership conundrum. They are very much likely to go into today’s game with an unchanged XI, although given the size of the ground, they might just be tempted to play Kuldeep Yadav ahead of one of the pacers, but the way Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi have bowled so far, accommodating Kuldeep in the XI might be a tad too harsh on any of the two.

Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy