Heading into the contest, both teams are on a winning momentum after securing wins in their previous encounters against KXIP and CSK respectively. While KKR edged KXIP in a thrilling contest, RCB had a dominant 37-run win over CSK in their last encounter.
How Do The Teams Stand In The IPL 2020 Points Table
Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore are placed neck to neck on the IPL points table with 8 points in their kitty. Third-placed KKR are a spot ahead of their opponents RCB on superior run rate, with both sides having won four out of their six encounters.
RCB and KKR Batsman Need To Deliver Collectively As A Unit
KKR And RCB batsman have been among the runs in the tournament so far but have not fired as a batting unit. RCB have a slight edge over KKR with most of their batsman striking form over the last set of matches. With skipper Virat Kohli finding his groove, with the willow, the RCB unit looks much more compact with openers Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch and AB De Villiers already in good nick. The inclusion of hard hitting all-rounder Chris Morris has further bolstered RCB's batting unit.
Kolkata Knight Riders formidable batting on paper has blown hot and cold in the tournament so far. While opener Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana and Eoin Morgan have played some eye catching knocks, the patchy form of skipper Dinesh Karthik and opener Sunil Narine is a major cause of worry.
Injury to All-Rounder Andre Russell A Major Cause Of Worry For KKR
KKR seem to be in a spot of bother with injury to their explosive Windies all-rounder Andre Russell. Russell injured himself while diving to save a boundary after missing a catch during KKR's game against KXIP.
Both RCB and KKR have well rounded bowling attacks with a good blend of pace and and spin
There will be plenty of pace on offer at Sharjah later in the evening with tearaway seamers in Pat Cummins and Kamlesh Nagarkoti (KKR) and Navdeep Saini and Chris Morris (RCB) spearheading the pace attacks on either sides. Chris Morris looked very promising with the new ball in his maiden IPL outing against CSK, Isara Udana has been good with his bagful of varations.
RCB Do Have The Edge In Spin Armoury With Narine Under The Scanner With Suspect Action
There will be a battle between the spin armoury of KKR and RCB to contain the power hitters on the batting friendly deck at Sharjah. RCB spinners have delivered with the ball with both Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar scalping wickets and containing the opposition. Meanwhile, KKR would keep their fingers crossed that their star off spinner Sunil Narine is not called for his action again.
Here are the full squads for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2020:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Aaron Finch, Josh Philippe, Chris Morris, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Pavan Deshpande, Adam Zampa
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (captain), Eoin Morgan, Shubman Gill, Tom Banton, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Rinku Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Nikhil Naik, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Sandeep Warrier, Varun Chakravarthy and Siddhesh Lad