Kolkata Kinght Riders will be up against an insider and the most successful contemporary leader in international cricket, Pat Cummins, as they host Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens in the second match of the day today.
The two teams start their IPL 2024 campaign under new captains as Shreyas Iyer is back to take charge from Nitish Rana. For SRH skipper Cummins it will be the first occasion to lead an IPL team.
Can Shreyas play the entire season?
Shreyas will have a lot to prove as captain and the batter after having missed the entire IPL season for KKR last year. He has also been in news for dropping out of the England series for fitness reasons.
The KKR skipper proved his match fitness and form with 111-ball 95, a first class half-century for him in 14 months, for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy final against Vidarbha.
However, there remain questions about his physical fitness. He had to seek medical attention during the third day’s play in the Ranji final. He missed the action on the fourth and fifth day. For KKR his fitness and form are crucial not just for the match against SRH, but the entire season ahead.
Shreyas will benefit immensely from the presence of Gautam Gambhir and head coach Chandrakant Pandit, under whom he has played for Mumbai in the past. Gambhir, the man to lead the KKR to their two IPL titles, is back in the korbo, lodbo, jeetbo camp with a mandate from team’s iconic owner Shahrukh Khan to “make it, or break it”.
Considering that the spinners have dominated the action at the Eden in the World Cup last year, KKR will expect the likes of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma to make the most of their home advantage.
Shreyas will have strong batting resources at his disposal in great finisher Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, and overseas signings Phil Salt and Rhamanullah Gurbaz.
Two Aussies in focus
It will probably be for the first time that two seasoned Australian pros – Mitchell Starc and Cummins, the duo to break the price ceiling at the IPL mini-auction in December last – will be up against each other. Shortly after SRH had committed till then the all-time IPL high Rs 20.5 crore for Cummins, KKR raised the bar to Rs 24.75 crore in an intense bidding war with Gujarat Titans to rope in Starc.
Pressure of the big price tag
Starc returns to IPL for the first time since 2015, the season in which he had scalped 20 wickets. The seasoned pro, who put the national duties ahead of the lure of the fat IPL purse, has nothing to prove but for dealing with the pressure of his big price tag.
KKR will need him in the starting XI for all their games to operate with seasoned Andre Russell. The team has a considerably strong spin department, but not many pace options. KKR had acquired Starc for the 2018 edition of the tournament, but he missed the entire season due to an injury.
SRH in world champion captain’s hands
SRH, the 2016 IPL champions and the finalists two seasons later, finished at the rock bottom in the ten-team league last year, under South African Aiden Markram. He is expectedly replaced by Cummins, the man who led Australia to the title triumphs in the ICC World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup last year.
It will be interesting to see how Cummins will marshal the SRH resources against the KKR, the team he has served for five seasons – 2014, 2015 and then from 2020 to 2022.
Indian fans will be keen to see Bhuvneshwar Kumar, once a proven match winner with the ball for India, in action. He will be sharing the new ball with Cummins.
Concern for Wanindu Hasaranga
Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, who is crucial for the team for his right-arm leg break bowling, has been banned by the International Cricket Council for the Test series against Bangladesh for breach of the code of conduct. There is no confirmation yet whether he will be will available for selection today.
The match will start at 7.30 pm India time.
Squads:
KKR: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Sakib Hussain, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Angkrish, Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, KS Bharat, Phil Salt, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Dushmantha Chameera, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mitchell Starc, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Harshit Rana and Suyash Sharma.
SRH: Pat Cummins (c), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.
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