2-time IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in the fifth encounter of the ongoing IPL 2020 season at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi later on Wednesday evening.

The KKR vs MI match in IPL 13 is scheduled to commence at 7:30 pm (IST) with the toss to take place at 7 pm (IST).

While Mumbai Indians would look to secure their first points of the season after losing their tournament opener to CSK a few days back, KKR would eye a win against the most successful IPL team in their opening encounter and get the season off to a winning start.

Mumbai Indian have dominated the past clashes between the two high profile teams, having won 19 of the 25 matches played out between the two sides over the past twelve editions of the league.

Mumbai will look for a far more better performance by their frontline batsman as it was only their opener Quinton de Kock and middle order batsman Saurabh Tiwary, who could come up with meaningful contributions in loss against CSK.

The MI vs KKR game could be dubbed as the battle of the power hitters as both the sides have a plethora of pugnacious strokemakers who can turn the course of a game in a blink of an eye. While MI have Rohit Sharma, Quinton De Kock, Ishan Kishan, Keiron Pollard and Hardik Pandya in their ranks, KKR have some brutal assaulters in Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Tom Banton, Nitish Rana and Shubhman Gill.

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KKR has happy memories from the last edition of the tournament played out in the UAE as they ended up lifting the coveted IPL trophy for the second time after beating Kings XI Punjab in a high-scoring final.

For the thirteenth edition of the IPL, the KKR released their seasoned campaigners like Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, and Piyush Chawla, and acquired the services of Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, and Tom Banton.

Kolkata Knight Riders have the edge when it comes to the spin armoury as their attack boasts of Windies spin king Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. In Chris Green, KKR has another spin option. Meanwhile Mumbai Indians fewer options with the lone front-line spinner in Rahul Chahar.

Mumbai's seam attack is one of the most formidable in the IPL despite the absence of their pace spearhead Lasith Malinga. The MI fast bowling unit has Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson, Dhawal Kulkarni and Hardik Pandya.

Kolkata Knight Riders have also strengthen their pace attack after roping in Australian speedster Pat Cummins for a whopping Rs 15.5 crores. The Kolkata franchise also has Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and Ali Khan as the other pace bowling options.

Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders Squads For IPL Game:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Quinton de Kock (w-k), Aditya Tare (w-k), Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaspreet Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Mohsin Khan, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, Digvijay Deshmukh, Jayant Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson

KKR: Dinesh Karthik (captain/wicket-keeper), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Ali Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Siddhesh Lad, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton (wicket-keeper), Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, M Siddhartha, Nikhil Naik, and Chris Green