Gujarat Lions, who did very well in IPL 2016, finishing third, will hope to do even better in this season of the IPL. They take on Kolkata Knight Riders in their home ground of Rajkot. Gujarat Lions have a power packed batting line-up, but will be without their most important player, Dwayne Bravo.
The all-rounder will miss the first two matches of the season because of a hamstring injury. Bravo is the most economical bowler in T20 cricket, who has the knack of bowling accurate yorkers and slow ball bouncers in the death overs. He is also a solid middle order batsman, who can hold an innings or hit big to get the run rate going. He will be missed.
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Kolkata Knight Riders will be without India’s premier fast bowler Umesh Yadav who has hip and lower-back issues. Yadav is unlikely to feature in the IPL for at least two weeks. He has really blossomed this season and emerged as the leading fast bowler in the world, bowling with pace and intelligence.
Unfortunately, Knight Riders will be without ace all-rounder Andre Russell. Russell is serving a 1-year ban for failing a doping test. He will be replaced by Colin de Grandhomme who has a fantastic T20 record – a strike-rate of 171 in his career, and bowls decent medium pace too. Shakib Al Hasan the star all-rounder will join KKR after Bangladesh’s Sri Lanka tour.
Gujarat Lions will also be without their star player Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja has a problem with his spinning finger and is certainly due a long rest after bowling his heart out for India. But they do have a couple of decent left-arm spinners in Shadab Jakati and Shivil Kaushik. Jadeja should be back in the side in a couple of weeks’ time.
Gujarat Lions have a decent batting line-up, but lack in the bowling department. KKR has always been a team that has consistently over-achieved and that may well be the case in this IPL as well. They don’t really have any star players with the exception of Umesh Yadav, but would still hope to do well.
The Teams
Gujarat Lions: 1 Brendon McCullum, 2 Dwayne Smith, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Aaron Finch, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 James Faulkner, 7 Ishan Kishan, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Shadab Jakati, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Shivil Kaushik
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Chris Lynn/Colin de Grandhomme, 5 Chris Woakes, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Suryakumar Yadav, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Sunil Narine, 10 Ankit Rajpoot, 11 Trent Boult
Watch Gujarat Lions take on Kolkata Knight Riders in Rajkot this April 7, 2017 at 2000 local (14:30 GMT)
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