Kolkata Knight Riders do not have a star-studded batting as Royal Challengers Bangalore which means a lot of their chances in their face off against the Faf du Plessis-led side will depend on the duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. Even though with Shreyas Iyer ruled out due to an injury and Shakib Al Hasan pulling out due to international commitments, the franchise did sign Jason Roy precisely to add some weightage to their top-order batting but he won't be able to join them for this game.

On the other hand, Bangalore's spine is their top-order batting with the likes of Virat Kohli and Du Plessis up there at the top with Glenn Maxwell also coming in somewhere in the top 4, depending upon the situation of the game. Both are superb against pace bowling and t would be interesting how they tackle the spin of Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. Anukul Roy could be another spinner Bangalore can face in this fixture.

If spinners can get through the famed trio of Bangalore, we have a game on much like Narine single-handedly did so in IPL 2021 Eliminator. However, this time around the situation is different, Bangalore are coming off a win and Kolkata lost their season opener against Punjab and will play their first match at home this season.

Other than the known unavialability of Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood and Rajat Patidar, Reece Topley injured himself in their first game and will most likely be out for this game. David Willey can be a likely replacement. For Kolkata, Lockie Ferguson is recovering from an injury but might not play this game. Roy hasn't arrived yet and Litton Das will fly only after the end of Bangladesh's Test against Ireland.

Probable Playing XIs:

Kolkata: Mandeep Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (captain), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee

Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (captain), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Dinesh Karthik (wickekeeper), Suyash Prabhudessai, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, David Willey, Karn Sharma

23:12 PM (IST) • 06 Apr 2023

KKR vs RCB LIVE

KKR WIN BY 81 RUNS. Varun Chakravarthy gets the last wicket. He scalps 4 for 15 in the end. What a match and what a performance by KKR after they were 89/5.

23:05 PM (IST) • 06 Apr 2023