Dinesh Karthik-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are set to host the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Eden Gardens on Sunday in the second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The men in purple and gold have already faced a blow as they lost three of their key seamers – Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Anrich Nortje before they head into the tournament. However, with a rock-solid batting line-up, the 2-time IPL champions will look forward to a better start this season.
On the other hand, David Warner is back in the hut and team mentor VVS Laxman has cleared that the Aussie left-hander is looking as fit as ever and is raring to go. Unfortunately, skipper Kane Williamson will miss the opening game as he suffered an injury during the bilateral series against Sri Lanka. Paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar will step into his shoes for the game.
Coming to the toss, Dinesh Karthik has won the toss and they will bowl first.
"The wicket will play pretty even throughout, so we want to chase. We have some good memories on this ground. We are looking forward to putting up a good performance. We didn't make it to the finals last year but it was a good effort by us. It's important we take one game at a time, as it's a long tournament," said Karthik at the toss.
Stand-in skipper Bhuvneshwar feels lucky to be given this opportunity and looking forward to the support from all-rounder Shakib al Hasan and Warner for smooth conduct.
"I am glad they chose me to captain the side. If you look at our side, there are players like Warner and Shakib who can help me. With Warner at the top, it's always good," said Bhuvneshwar.
Here're the playing XIs:
KKR: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna
SRH: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hassan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul.