 "Kolkata Knight Riders will look to strengthen their IPL playoff hopes with a win against Punjab Kings. AP")
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings preview: With the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs in sight, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will host a struggling Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Eden Gardens on Friday. It’s a tale of two extremes — KKR, in second place, are enjoying life at the top half of the IPL points table whereas PBKS, who have been without the injured Shikhar Dhawan for a while, are in ninth place with just four points from eight games.
A win for KKR would certainly put them a step closer to the IPL playoffs whereas a loss for PBKS would put them on the brink of elimination.
Sam Curran has been leading PBKS ever since Shikhar Dhawan’s absence. Dhawan had sustained a shoulder injury during a game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on 9 April and has missed Punjab’s games ever since. And although he is set to miss the game against KKR, PBKS bowling coach Sunil Joshi believes the veteran would be ready for the game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on 1 May.
“He is on the road to recovery. Hopefully, he should be fit for the next game (against CSK),” Joshi told reporters ahead of the KKR clash.
Impact Shorts
View AllPBKS batting has been depleted. A major chunk of the runs have been scored by Shashank Singh (195) and Ashutosh Sharma (159) so its high time that the other batters step up.
In stark contrast, Sunil Narine (286) and Phil Salt (249) have been impressive for the Kolkata Knight Riders and the duo will once again hope to get off to a fiery start.
Ever since picking up figures of 3/28 against LSG, Mitchell Starc has gone for 50 runs or more in each of his last two matches. Starc will have to come good against Punjab Kings.
Squads:
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
PBKS: Arshdeep Singh, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Brar, Harpreet Bhatia, Jitesh Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Kagiso Rabada, Liam Livingstone, Nathan Ellis, Prabhsimran Singh, Rahul Chahar, Rishi Dhawan, Sam Curran, Shikhar Dhawan, Shivam Singh, Sikandar Raza, Vidwath Kaverappa, Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Prince Choudhary, Rilee Rossouw