Kolkata Knight Riders have lost three consecutive games and they can snap their losing streak against a deflated Rajasthan Royals.
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If one looks at the points table in IPL 2021, the scenario is same for Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals. Both teams have played four games and lost three games with just one win. However, the nature of the wins and losses are sharp in contrast. Kolkata Knight Riders won their first game by 10 runs. They suffered close losses to Mumbai Indians and had a huge loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Against Chennai Super Kings, they had a chance but they fell short.
The loss for Kolkata Knight Riders against Chennai Super Kings represented another missed opportunity. The top order was blown away by Deepak Chahar. At 31/5, they were always playing catch-up. The fact that Dinesh Karthik, Pat Cummins and Andre Russell fired will give Kolkata Knight Riders plenty of optimism.
The performance against Chennai Super Kings might give Kolkata Knight Riders puts them in a good stead against Rajasthan Royals, who are at the bottom and are already deflated. Injuries to Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes, as well as the unavailability of Liam Livingstone, have punched a huge hole in their resources. Rajasthan Royals are struggling with both bat and ball. The bowlers did not take a single wicket against Royal Challengers Bangalore and the batting has struggled.
Rajasthan Royals do not have an X-factor player, barring Jos Buttler, who can intimidate the opposition. In this case, everybody must contribute collectively. But, for Rajasthan Royals, that is not happening in IPL 2021.
Kolkata Knight Riders might want to bolster the batting, which means Shakib Al Hasan might come in for Sunil Narine. It was a surprise that KKR left out Harbhajan Singh, the bowler who has huge experience at the Wankhede. Eoin Morgan might want more assurance from the top order as well as in the bowling. This could mean that Shakib comes in the middle order and that Harbhajan shores up the bowling.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals need to fire as a collective unit. Any changes that they make, it must be effective.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Sunil Narine/Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti/ Harbhajan Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson(w/c), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal/ Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman
The pitch at the Wankhede will be good for batting and there will be very little dew. The pitch wil be good for batting at the end with some seam movement at the beginning.
Kolkata Knight Riders have won 12 out of the 22 encounters while Rajasthan Royals have won 10. In these 22 matches, there has been two Super Overs and Rajasthan Royals have registered wins in both.
