Okay! The big news first – David Warner is back. Perhaps the most controversial name in cricket is back playing for a side he has always been loyal to and captained with distinction – Sunrisers Hyderabad.
However, this time, Warner is not the captain. We don’t think any team will make him a captain again after the ball tampering scandal that made him the biggest villain of international cricket.
Instead, Sunrisers have a more steady influence as captain – Kane Williamson, who has probably never done a single “bad” thing in his life. An outstanding cricketer, and an even better human being – it’s hard to find someone like that in competitive sport. In many ways, Kane reminds one of The Wall, Rahul Dravid – a gentleman cricketer and a great batsman.
Williamson, however, is unlikely to start the first match. He suffered a shoulder injury in the last international game he played in New Zealand. But no, David Warner is not going to be the captain.
Shikhar Dhawan is no longer available as he has been sold to Delhi Capitals. That is why Bhuvneshwar Kumar gets to be the captain. Bhuvi has been the best bowler in the IPL last few years, so this is a well deserved promotion.
As for KKR, it’s practically the same team as last year. Their key player is Sunil Narine, who has transformed himself from a match winning bowler to a match winning bowler plus match winning batsman.
He has had to transform his bowling action completely because of a suspect action. But he still remains as effective as ever.
Carl Crowe, a coach at KKR said, “His performance levels have maintained a high quality – obviously his batting is part of his game as well – but when you modify your action, to have been able to maintain the standards of performance he has done, credit to him.”
In Dinesh Karthik, KKR have a very steady captain, someone who understands the game very well. Chris Lynn provides them with the X factor.
This is going to be a tightly contested match between two very good teams.
The Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Shubman Gill, 5 Nitish Rana, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk, capt), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Sandeep Warrier, 11 Harry Gurney/ Lockie Ferguson
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Shakib Al Hasan/ Mohammad Nabi, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Sandeep Sharma/ Shahbaz Nadeem, 10 Siddharth Kaul, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
