Kolkata Knight Riders welcome back Gautam Gambhir, their captain for 7 years, who is now returning to his old hunting ground as the captain of Delhi Daredevils. There is no acrimony of any sort between Gambhir and KKR, but Gambhir will want to prove a point or two to his detractors in the social media.
The Daredevils won a big game last time around, beating Mumbai Indians in a tight contest. They were able to win because of an epic innings by their new opening batsman from England, Jason Roy. Roy was supported by Rishabh Pant, who finally came good in that game.
Daredevils are feeling very confident as they go into this game. KKR on the other hand have had a rough last couple of games. Captain Dinesh Karthik of the KKR will always be judged against the man who won two IPLs for them, Gautam Gambhir and he has fallen short so far.
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Karthik is a sincere, hard working and high talented player, but there are already questions about his credentials as a captain in Kolkata. Nobody can quite make out why he trusted the woeful Vinay Kumar to bowl the last over in the game against CSK.
Another mistake was not utilizing his bowling resources well in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Young fast bowler Shivam Mavi was given only one over to bowl in that game, one wonders why!
Nobody in Kolkata has even one bad thing to say about Gambhir and we expect the KKR fans to give him a rousing welcome. But they will dearly hope for their side to win.
For KKR, the loss of the injured young fast bowler Kamlesh Nagarkoti could not have come at a worse time. He will be replaced by Karnataka medium pacer Prasidh Krishna.
For Delhi, Chris Morris may make it to the team for tonight’s match. Morris was injured and missed out the last game. He is an important player for them as he bowls fast and bats well in the lower order.
The Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt & wk), 6 Shubman Gill, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Shivam Mavi, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Kuldeep Yadav
Delhi Daredevils: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Jason Roy, 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Shreyas Iyer, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Dan Christian/ Chris Morris, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Shahbaz Nadeem, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Trent Boult
Watch Kolkata Knight Riders play Delhi Daredevils tonight at 8 pm on Star Sports!
