Image Credit: Insta Astro
The journey of Indian Premier League 2023 is now moving towards playoff matches. This season, all the teams have played more than half of their matches, but the picture of the playoffs is not clear yet. At present, all the teams are involved in the competition to go to the last four. This season, the journey of both Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Punjab Kings has not been anything special. On the other hand, on Monday, both teams will clash with each other to keep alive their hopes of making it to the playoffs. While KKR will have to take some tough decisions in the match, Punjab will also have to perform well in every department of the game.
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Do or die match for both the teams
The Punjab team led by Shikhar Dhawan had to face defeat against Mumbai Indians in the last match. He is one rung above eighth-ranked KKR with a two-point lead but both these teams are in danger of being out of the playoff race. For KKR led by Nitish Rana, now the remaining four matches have become like do or die.
His team management now needs to consider other options other than their Caribbean veterans Andre Russell and Sunil Narine as both these players have not been able to perform as expected so far this season. Especially Narayan has neither been able to show the magic of his spin bowling nor has he been able to contribute anything in batting.
KKR will get a home ground advantage
The question arises whether KKR can keep such a player in the playing XI who has taken only seven wickets in 10 matches at an economy rate of 8.76 and scored only 14 runs in eight innings. With Narine being a regular part of the playing XI, KKR is not able to utilize their foreign players like fast bowler Lockie Ferguson and all-rounder David Weiss properly.
Varun Chakraborty is playing a good role in the spin department from KKR and in such a situation the team management can consider replacing Narine with another player in the playing XI. KKR has to play three of its remaining four matches at Eden Gardens and in such a situation it should take full advantage of the home conditions.
Image Credit: Cricbouncer.com
Punjab will have to achieve the rhythm,
while Punjab needs to continue the way it did well in every department of the game in the last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Punjab has a good bowling attack in the form of Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, and Arshdeep Singh. But in the last match against Mumbai, he could not defend his score of 214 runs.
Mumbai batsmen adopted an aggressive approach against them and KKR batsmen will have to adopt a similar approach. Punjab's batting is dependent on Liam Livingstone, Shikhar Dhawan, and wicket-keeper batsman Jitesh Sharma and KKR will have to try to rein in these three.
Squad:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (Captain), Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaj, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakraborty, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weiss, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mandeep Singh and Arya Desai.
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Shah Rukh Khan, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Tayde, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Mohit Rathi, Shivam Singh. The match starts Indian time at 7.30 pm.
