Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns against Punjab Kings in the 42nd match of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Friday. While KKR is strongly placed in second place with five wins in seven games, PBKS is tottering in the bottom half with two wins in eight games.
KKR won their last game by one run against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a thrilling fashion and would aim to continue the winning impetus.
KKR has been coming up with a collective effort and it has showcased in their results. Their skipper Shreyas Iyer scored a crucial fifty in the last game, which must have added a lot of confidence to his bag.
Sunil Narine has been magnificent with both bat and ball for the two-time champions and Gautam Gambhir, being the mentor, has played a key role while working behind the scenes in the success of the all-rounder.
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, have certainly missed the services of their full-time captain Shikhar Dhawan. PBKS have lost their last four matches and more disappointingly they have failed to close out these games as they have suffered narrow losses.
For PBKS, their overseas middle order will need to take more onus. Jonny Bairstow has been left on the sidelines because of poor form but the likes of Rilee Rossouw and Liam Livingstone have failed to deliver for the team.
Match Prediction: Kolkata Knight Riders will enter the contest as favorites against Punjab Kings.
KKR Squad: Shreyas Iyer, Phil Salt, K.S. Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (AFG), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford (WI), Manish Pandey, Andre Russell (WI), Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine (WI), Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc (AUS), Dushmantha Chameera (SL), Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman (AFG).
PBKS IPL 2024 SQUAD
Wicketkeepers: Jonny Bairstow (ENG), Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma.
Batters: Shikhar Dhawan, Harpreet Bhatia, Rilee Rossouw (SA), Shashank Singh.
All-rounders: Liam Livingstone (ENG), Atharva Taide, Rishi Dhawan, Sam Curran (ENG), Sikandar Raza (ZIM), Shivam Singh, Chris Woakes (ENG), Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Harshal Patel.
Bowlers: Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada (SA), Nathan Ellis (AUS), Rahul Chahar, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Prince Choudhary.
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