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Who will open for Sunrisers? Gurbaz vs Phil Salt for Kolkata? Predicting KKR vs SRH playing XI; check out H2H record
Both KKR and SRH will be hoping to make a winning start to IPL 2024 after a poor finish in 2023 season.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will open their IPL 2024 campaign against 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Kolkata will be hoping to get off to a winning start in the season, under new mentor Gautam Gambhir, who had led them to their only two IPL trophy wins, after they finished seventh in both their last two seasons. Sunrisers, on the other hand, who finished bottom of the table in 2023 and eighth in both 2021 and 2022, will also be keen to bury the ghosts of the pasts under new captain Pat Cummins and head coach Daniel Vettori.
Phil Salt vs Rahmanullah Gurbaz in KKR XI
Two hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batters at the top of the order give KKR an explosive prospect, especially with both players being in form. Yet, only one of them will be picked in the final XI. KKR also have a core Indian line-up with Venkatesh Iyer at the top, followed by Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh. There were some concerns about the captain's fitness, especially after he did not field on the final two days of the Ranji Trophy final after his back injury resurfaced. But Shreyas shrugged off all doubts after he featured in an intra-squad game in Kolkata earlier this week.
All eyes will, however, be on Starc, who will be playing his first IPL game since 2015. Shreyas will be heavily relying in the Aussie and Andre Russell for pace-bowling duty on Saturday given the inexperience among the Indian counterparts.
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Batting first: Venkatesh Iyer, Phil Salt (wk), Shreyas Iyer (C), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy
Batting second: Venkatesh Iyer, Phil Salt (wk), Shreyas Iyer (C), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma/Vaibhav Arora
Impact-player options: Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora
KKR could interchange between Nitish and Suyash/Arora in the XI depending on whether they batting or bowling first.
Who will open for SRH?
Travis Head should be a certainty for Sunrisers hence the toss-up will be between Abhishek Sharma and Mayanka Agarwal for the second opening spot. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga will be unavailable for the first few matches for Hyderabad, given that he is part of the Test series against Bangladesh, although he won't be playing any of the matches as he is serving an ICC suspension. But it will only be a blessing in disguise for Cummins in picking SRH's overseas players in the XI.
Batting first: Mayank Agarwal, Travis Head, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan
Batting second: Mayank Agarwal, Travis Head, Rahul Tripathi/Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik/Mayank Markande/Jaydev Unadkat
Impact-player options: Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat
Abhishek or Rahul can be substituted for Umran Malik, Mayank Markande or Jaydev Unadkat depending on what Sunrisers will expect at the Eden Gardens.
Head-to-head record
The rivalry record goes heavily in favour of Kolkata, who have secured 15 wins in 25 IPL matches against Sunrisers, who managed nine victories, while one ended in a draw. Moreover, since 2020, KKR lost just two of their eight matches against Hyderabad in the IPL.
Even at Eden Gardens, KKR's home ground, Kolkata own an advantage with a 6-3 record against SRH. However, the visitors secured three wins in their last four visits to the venue.
