Kolkata Knight Riders have suffered a massive blow, having lost their best batsman in the IPL 2017 so far, Chris Lynn, quite possibly for the rest of the season because of a shoulder injury. Lynn has a history of injuries and he has missed out far too many matches in his time with KKR. This is really an unfortunate situation for both the player and the team, and there is nothing one can do about that.
This means Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa will play at the top of the order. They have been playing together for the last 3 seasons and scored over 400 runs in each of them. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav has indicated that he would be playing again, having fully recovered from his hip and lower back injury.
Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan is likely to play for KKR as well, having returned from national duty. KKR have the likes of Darren Bravo and Rovman Powell in the reserve, but they are unlikely to be given much play time in this series.
So far, KKR have lost to Mumbai Indians by four wickets, beaten Gujarat Lions by an impressive 10 wickets, which saw Lynn at his best. Unfortunately, that’s the last we see of him in this IPL.
Kings XI Punjab meanwhile have had a perfect IPL, having beaten Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets and Rising Pune Supergiant by six wickets. They are led by Glenn Maxwell, who has shown himself to be a very aggressive and yet composed captain.
The game will be played at the new re-laid Eden Gardens surface, which is considered to be very pace-friendly. New Zealand allrounder Colin de Grandhomme is likely to get a game. He is a decent medium-pacer known who is better known for his batting strike-rate of an incredible 171.
Kings XI are a settled team with no injury concerns. They are expected to bring in Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma in place of Mohit Sharma, and that’s the only change we see..
The Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Shakib Al Hasan, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Umesh Yadav/Piyush Chawla, 11 Trent Boult.
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Mohit Sharma, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 T Natarajan.
Watch Kolkata Knight Riders take on Kings XI Punjab live from
Kolkata on April 13, 2017 at 2000 local (1430 GMT)!
[table id=16 responsive=”tablet” /]
