Knights look to bounce back against upbeat Punjab Kings

In a tale of two teams with contrasting fortunes in their preceding encounter against a familiar foe, Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings will be involved in a feisty bout in IPL’s latest slugfest. The Knights were pipped by the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the finishing line in a low-scoring thriller. Punjab, on the contrary, chased down a monumental total of 205 runs against RCB as Odean Smith went berserk after Anuj Rawat dropped him for less than 10 runs.

With bygones being bygones, this will be a whole new chapter in the rivalry that will witness both the teams coming afresh with the perennial objective of a win. A victory for the Kings will bolster their claim for being one of the most formidable teams in the current IPL while the Knights has been riding on some phenomenal bowling to leave their opponents in a state of blue funk.

This will be a perfect match-up given the contrasting strengths of both the franchises. Punjab has some sublime batting firepower in their shed while the Knights have a string of destructive bowlers that was elevated to another level with the return of experienced New Zealand campaigner, Tim Southee.

Given the batting-friendly surface that Wankhede is known for, the KKR batters will have to up their game, considering their landslide against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Even though there was a show of collective brilliance against the Chennai Super Kings, the question still remains, on a surface like Wankhede, how prepared their batters will be when the Kings come knocking.

Venue Watch:

The wee hours of the game will have something on offer for the fast bowlers, especially the ones who are able to make the ball drift, given the breezy atmosphere. The average score while batting first at Wankhede is 194 while batting second, it drops down to 182 in the shortest format of the game. The highest total recorded while batting first in T20Is is 240 while the highest score chased down at the Wankhede is a staggering 230. The sides chasing have savoured unrivalled dominance as they have won on 7 occasions while the team batting first has just won twice.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Abhijeet Tomar, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Aman Khan, Umesh Yadav, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Baba Indrajith, Ashok Sharma, Pratham Singh.

Punjab Kings:

Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Porel, Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Prerak Mankad, Vaibhav Arora, Writtick Chatterjee, Baltej Dhanda, Ansh Patel, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Benny Howell.

Match details:

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings

Venue: Wankhede Stadium

Date: 1st April 2022

Time: 7:30 PM IST