No team has lost more than the 75 percent matches against a particular rival. Kolkata Knight Riders will be aware of this dubious distinction when they take on IPL’s most successful-ever team in their first encounter of the new season. Historically, MI has been a bogey team for KKR as Shah Rukh Khan’s team has managed just six wins in 12 seasons against Mumbai Indians who have won 19 times from 25 encounters.
India’s got the talent!
Is this match going to be decided by Rohit Vs Gill contest? From someone who started as a middle-order bat, Rohit Sharma has become one of the finest in white ball cricket. MI opener was always seen as ‘precocious talent’ and his counterpart Shubman Gill in KKR incidentally is being hailed as the next big batting talent of Indian cricket. Like Rohit, Gill too is a ‘convert’ from a middle order bat to an opener. “Shubman is a quality player. There is a lot of expectation from him around the world, I’m sure he will exceed all expectations and I’m really confident about that,” said Dinesh Karthik in a virtual interaction ahead of the match. Both the Indian openers’ early hitting-pressure will be lessened by the presence of the overseas openers( Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine) who love to attack from the word go.
Middle order powerhouse can decide the fate
While there is not much of a difference between MI’s Suryakumar Yadav and KKR’s Nitish Rana at number 3, the rest of the middle order of KKR is a matter of envy for any rival. England’s Eoin Morgan and Karthik are capable of explosion at any time in the middle order; however it is the presence of West Indian Andre Russell that gives KKR a formidable look. “Eoin Morgan, from our point of view, was a fantastic get at the IPL auction because we wanted to provide a little bit of resource around Russell’s six-hitting ability,” said the coach of KKR Brendon McCullum at a press interaction. “I know (Andre) Russell has done that role significantly well for a number of years for Kolkata. He’s done exceptionally well. If I get a go, hopefully I will be able to aid that,” said Morgan during a virtual media interaction ahead of their match against MI on Wednesday.
Living up to expectations
Keeping Russell quiet will be MI’s biggest challenge of the match who has a staggering strike rate in IPL. Particularly, Russell’s record against both MI’s most trusted weapons Jasprit Bumrah (49 runs off 33 balls, one dismissal) and Trent Boult (17 runs off nine balls, one dismissal) in T20s.
“He (Russell) is one of the most destructive batsmen in the game and therein lies the challenge,” Boult admitted. “That’s personally why I play the game, I like to take on the big players and look to take wickets, I’ll be looking forward to that challenge and I am sure I’ll face it at some stage in this tournament,” added the Kiwi pacer speaking to media ahead of the match. However, if anyone who is remotely close to Russell in terms of causing destruction in the death overs, it is Hardik Pandya. In many ways, this contest between Russell and Pandya could be that of an incumbent and the challenger. Both will have to live up to the enormous expectations.
The Aussies pace battery
MI may replace the Australian James Pattinson if fellow Aussie Nathan Coulter-Nile is fit. But, all eyes will be on the IPL’s costliest buy ever Pat Cummins (Australia’s pace ace across formats) who is in the KKR side. Perhaps, Cummins may be able to address his team’s powerplay problems. Losing 12 wickets in the first six overs in 2018 and 16 wickets in 2019 gave them big headache.
Toss pressure on KKR
Even though, CSK lost to RR after conceding over 200 runs when they opted to choose bat second which has been the trend in this IPL for any captain who wins the toss. Both Rohit and Karthik may continue to opt to bat second if toss goes in their favour on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. More so Karthik because that is the comfort zone of his team as KKR has won approximately 70 per cent of their matches while chasing but have managed to success around 30 per cent of their games batting first In the last four years in IPL .
Likely XI-Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, SSTiwary, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Pattinson/Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Likely XI: Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c, wk), Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Rahul Tripathi, Pat Cummins, Kuldeep Yadav, Kamlesh Nagarkoti/Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna.
(Vimal Kumar is a senior sports journalist who has covered multiple cricket world cups and Rio Olympics in the last two decades. Vimal is also the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century and The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide.)
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