Kolkata Knight Riders have lost two tough games against Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore while Chennai Super Kings are on a high.
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Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to IPL 2021. Kolkata Knight Riders started off brilliantly with a win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, they suffered two traumatic losses to Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Chennai Super Kings, on the other hand, are staging a resurgence. After being thrashed by Delhi Capitals, they have won two games in style against Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals. The performance against Rajasthan Royals has given glimpses of the old Chennai Super Kings side that existed pre-2020.
Chennai Super Kings have tremendous depth in their batting and bowling. The batting could avoid a collapse like they had in the game against Rajasthan Royals as they struggled in the death. The lower-middle order has been shored up by Sam Curran while the top order still has the old guns in Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina. The bowling came to the party on Monday when Moeen Ali and Ravindra Jadeja spun a web.
Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, continue to be an enigma. Their batting is powerful but they never fire in unison. The bowling was taken to the cleaners by Royal Challengers Bangalore, with Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers in fine form. KKR’s bowling will be under scrutiny again on a Wankhede wicket which is good for batting.
On a Wankhede wicket that has good pace and bounce, it might be a good idea for KKR to include Lockie Ferguson. His pace and record against MS Dhoni is good. That could mean Pat Cummins sits out. Shakib went for runs and failed with the bat in the previous games. This could mean Sunil Narine coming into the team. Chennai Super Kings, on the other hand, might not want to make many changes.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Shakib Al Hasan/Sunil Narine, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins/Lockie Ferguson, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar
Match No.15: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings
Venue: Wankhede stadium, Mumbai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
The pitch at the Wankhede will assist seam at the start. However, it will become good to bat on. The weather will have a minimum of 27 degrees and humidity will be 63 percent. Dew was not present for the previous game, and it might be missing even in this one.
Chennai Super Kings hold a 14-8 advantage against Kolkata Knight Riders in 22 IPL games.
