Dinesh Karthik and Ravichandran Ashwin are good friends but there are high chances of that taking a back seat when Kolkata Knight Riders take on Kings XI Punjab in what could turn out to be the most crucial game in the latter half of IPL at Mohali on Friday.
The two teams are languishing at the bottom half of the table and need to win on Friday to keep alive their remote Play-off chances. Both KKR and Kings XI have 10 points from 12 matches but the Kolkata outfit is placed a rung above Punjab at sixth in the eight-team competition by virtue of a better net run-rate.
Both KKR and Kings XI had a decent outing in the first half of the tournament before losing the plot in the all-important second phase.
After registering four wins and one loss in the first five games, KKR suffered six defeats in a row that derailed their campaign.
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KXIP, on the other hand, lost their last three encounters to find themselves on the verge of getting knocked out of the tournament.
{{/usCountry}}KXIP, on the other hand, lost their last three encounters to find themselves on the verge of getting knocked out of the tournament.
{{/usCountry}}Change has been the only constant as far as KXIP are concerned and that is set to continue even when they take on KKR on Friday.
A struggling Mujeeb Ur Rahman may be dropped from Friday’s game and he might be replaced Australia’s Andrew Tye. Mujeeb created the unwanted record of conceding most runs (66) by an overseas cricketer in IPL couple of nights ago against Sunrisers.
There might be a change in the batting department too with all-rounder Sam Curran taking David Millers’ place, who has failed to leave a mark on this season’s IPL.
KXIP Predicted XI vs KKR: 1.KL Rahul, 2.Chris Gayle, 3.Mayank Agarwal,4. Nicholas Pooran, 5.Sam Curran, 6.Simran Singh(w), 7.Ravichandran Ashwin(c), 8.Murugan Ashwin, 9.Mohammed Shami, 10.Arshdeep Singh, 11.Andrew Tye
(With agency inputs)