Kolkata Knight Riders are a team that believes in sound consistency but that was overhauled by Gujarat Lions in the last match, that too in their fortress Eden Gardens. They would be injured soldiers thirsty for revenge and on the other hand Royal Challengers Bangalore would be hoping to continue taking their momentum forward. They will for certain have a problem with their death overs bowling. The toss will have a certain bearing on the match, like it did for KKR in the last match, they are found wanting while defending.
With news making the rounds it seems AB de Villiers and Samuel Badree will return to the team which will bolster them.
Last season, each team won their away match – Royal Challengers thumped Knight Riders by nine wickets at Eden Gardens but lost their home match by five wickets.
Seamer S Aravind said that AB de Villiers, Samuel Badree and Tymal Mills were likely to be fit for the match against Knight Riders. If that is the case, and Royal Challengers look at picking both overseas players, at least Travis Head and Shane Watson could make way for them.
Likely XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Shakib Al Hasan, 8 Chris Woakes/Colin de Grandhomme, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 Travis Head/AB de Villiers, 4 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 5 Mandeep Singh/Harpreet Singh, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Shane Watson/Samuel Badree, 8 Pawan Negi, 9 Adam Milne/Billy Stanlake/Tymal Mills, 10 S Aravind, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
