Both the Royals and Knight Riders are under pressure here after losing three of their opening four matches to this edition of the IPL.
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The Rajasthan Royals need to pick themselves up quickly after suffering a heavy loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday. After posting an under-par 177/9, RCB smashed their way to a 10-wicket victory with 21 balls remaining.
Their key batsmen at the top all gave their wickets away in that game. Unless Buttler, Samson and Miller can make major contributions, their struggle will be prolonged.
Kolkata Knight Riders sit level on points with Rajasthan with their identical records of one win and three losses after four rounds. The pressure is just as much on them to halt this poor form and snap a three-game losing run.
They were smashed for 220/3 by Chennai Super Kings and they were in all kinds of trouble at 31/5 in the powerplay. Dinesh Kartik (40 from 24), Andre Russell (54 from 22) and Pat Cummins (66* from 34) took it down to the wire before they ultimately fell short. The top order desperately needs to improve including skipper Eoin Morgan. Sunil Narine may have just about done enough with the ball to merit another chance against the Royals.
Wicketkeeper: Dinesh Karthik, Jos Butler.
Batsmen: Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag.
All-rounders: Chris Morris, Andre Russell.
Bowlers: Prasidh Krishna, Chetan Sakariya, Sunil Narine
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain), Jos Buttler (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (captain), Sunil Narine, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Andre Russull, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
The match will begin at 19:30 PM IST and will take place on Saturday, April 24.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (Captain), Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Pawan Negi, Tim Seifert, Shakib al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson(captain), Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Christopher Morris, Shivam Dube, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman, Liam Livingstone, K.C. Cariappa, Akash Singh, Kuldip Yadav.
