The IPL match is being held after four years at the IS Brinda Cricket Stadium in Mohali. The first match at the stadium will be between Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at 3.30 pm on Saturday. Both the teams are adorned with dashing players. Talking about the last season, both the teams could not qualify in the playoffs.
This time there has been a lot of change in both the teams. While Punjab Kings have made Shikhar Dhawan the captain of the team this year, KKR has given the responsibility of captaincy to Nitish Rana due to Shreyas Iyer’s injury. Mohali Stadium is the home ground of Kings XI Punjab, players like Arshdeep Singh and Harpreet Brar playing in the team have come out of this ground.
Shikhar Dhawan, Sam Karan, Mathew and Shahrukh team strength
Talking about Punjab Kings, the team is yet to win a single IPL title. The first blow to the team was in the form of Jonny Bairstow, who was ruled out for the entire season due to injury. Australia’s Matthew Short has been included in his place. Dashing batsman Liam Livingstone and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada will also not be in the match against KKR.
Shreyas, Shakib and Liton will be missed
Shreyas Iyer’s injury in KKR and the absence of Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das in the opening match is looking a bit weak, but still KKR has some players who can turn the tide of the match. Opening can be done by Venkatesh Iyer and Rahmanullah Gurbaz of Afghanistan.
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Kolkata Knight Riders have the upper hand in the record
If we talk about both the teams played in IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders have the upper hand in this. So far 30 matches have been played between these two teams. Out of which Knight Riders have won 20 times and Punjab Kings have won 10 times. At the same time, in the last five matches, Kolkata has won three and Punjab has won two matches.
Punjab Kings Team – Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma (Wicketkeeper), Rajangad Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingston, Atharva Tayde, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Baltej Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Sam Karan, Sikandar Raza, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwat Kavirappa, Shivam Singh, Mohit Rathee and McCue Short.
Kolkata Knight Riders Team – Nitish Rana (Captain), Vaibhav Arora, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Suyash Sharma, Andre Russell, David Wiese, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lucky Ferguson, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakraborty, Anukul Rai, Rinku Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Shakib Al Hasan, Mandeep Singh and Litton Das.
