High-flying Kolkata Knight Riders will host Gujarat Lions, who have been having a forgettable season, in Match 23 of the 2017 Indian Premier League [IPL] season on Friday.
The Knight Riders go into the match as huge favourites, having won four out of the five matches that they have played this season. On the other hand, the Lions are desperate for a victory as they have registered just one win from five games in the tournament so far.
This is the second time the two sides are facing off in the league this season, with Kolkata winning the first contest by 10 wickets.
Ahead of the match, we have the latest team news, time and date, as well as how you can watch all the action from the UAE.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: April 21, 2017 (Friday)
Time: 18:30 GST, 20:00 local time (IST), 14:30 GMT
Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Sony Six, Sony Six HD (English), Sony Max, Sony Max HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE: Sport360.com
TEAM NEWS, SQUADS, PREDICTED XIs
KKR SQUAD: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Andre Russell, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Sheldon Jackson, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, Trent Boult, Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rovman Powell, R Sanjay Yadav, Ishank Jaggi, Darren Bravo, Sayan Ghosh, Colin de Grandhomme.
Probably the toughest thing to predict with the Kolkata line-up is which player is likely to come out to open alongside Gautam Gambhir. After losing Chris Lynn due to injury, they pulled a surprise by sending in Sunil Narine as an opener, but in the last match, it was Colin de Grandhomme who came out to open.
With de Grandhomme having failed to make the most of his opportunities, it won’t be surprising if Shakib Al Hasan is included in the playing XI in place of the New Zealand all-rounder.
PREDICTED KKR XI: Gambhir (c), Narine, Uthappa (wk), Pandey, Yusuf, Shakib, Suryakumar, Woakes, Kuldeep, Coulter-Nile, Umesh.
GL SQUAD: Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan, Pradeep Sangwan, Shivil Kaushik, Shadab Jakati, Jaydev Shah, Nathu Singh, Basil Thampi, Tejas Singh Baroka, Manpreet Gony, Jason Roy, Munaf Patel, Chirag Suri, Shelly Shaurya, Shubham Agrawal, Pratham Singh, Aksh Deep Nath.
The bowling department has been a big worry for the Lions. The spinners, especially, have been below par which includes Ravindra Jadeja who hasn’t been able to replicate his Test form in the IPL.
Although Dwayne Bravo has started training with the squad, he isn’t expected to be fit in time for this match.
PREDICTED GL XI: Smith, McCullum, Raina, Finch, Karthik (wk), Kishan, Jadeja, Praveen, Tye, Thampi, Kulkarni.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
KKR: W W W L W
GL: L L W L L
MATCH PREDICTION
Kolkata have the form book in their favour, so we’re expecting a win for the hosts in this encounter.