 "Gujarat Titans face a must-win situation against Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL clash on Monday. AP")
Gujarat Titans vs Kolkata Knight Riders preview: Gujarat Titans host Kolkata Knight Riders in a must-win clash for the hosts at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in Match 63 of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday. KKR have already qualified for the playoffs, after they had defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) in a rain-curtailed contest on Saturday.
GT, meanwhile, are in eighth place in the IPL standings and have their hopes hanging in the balance with just 10 points from 12 games. Wins in their next two games might not confirm their progress to the playoffs since other results will have to heavily go in their favour.
The Shubman Gill-led side, however, are coming fresh off a 35-run win over reigning champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharshan had scored centuries to power GT to 231/3, and the bowlers led by Mohit Sharma (3/31) did a pretty good job to restrict CSK to 196/8.
However, facing an in-form KKR side who have won their last four games could be a challenge for GT. Getting rid of KKR’s destructive openers Sunil Narine and Phil Salt will be key for GT, and for a side who have had a mixed tournament so far, KKR will begin favourites.
As far as their bowling attack is concerned, Varun Chakaravarthy has been their most in-form bowler with 10 wickets from the last four matches. David Miller will be crucial for GT in the middle-overs and as a result, he could go up against Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, which could be couple of mini-battles to watch out for.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSquads:
GT: Abhinav Sadarangani, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, David Miller, Jayant Yadav, Joshua Little, Kane Williamson, Matthew Wade, Mohammad Shami, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill (C), Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Azmatullah Omarzai, Umesh Yadav, Manav Suthar, Shahrukh Khan, Sushant Mishra, Kartik Tyagi, Spencer Johnson.
KKR: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (C), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey