In match three of the IPL 2021 season, Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on Kolkata Knight Riders at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai.
SRH and KKR will play the third match of the IPL 2021 season at Chennai tomorrow, 11th April 2021. Star Sports Networks and Hotstar will broadcast this encounter at 7.30 PM IST.
Both the teams have few similarities between them. KKr and SRH have quality spinners in their lineup. Those spin bowlers will be raring to go on a wicket like the Chepauk Stadium has. The wicket in Chennai is on the slower side. The match between MI and RCB was a thriller as Virat, and his men managed to win on the last ball because of the slower surface.
Both the teams have a strong batting lineup as well. David Warner, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, and Wriddhiman Saha will be the four batsmen from SRH to watch out for. Saha and Warner proved a good opening pair for SRH in the last few games of the IPL 2020 season. the Orange Army will want to stick to the same opening combination in the IPL 2020 season.
But for KKR, the openers weren’t consistent for them in the last season. Shubman Gill was the only batsman who performed well for them in all the matches. But they will need runs from Nitish Rana, or KKR can also open the innings with Rahul Tripathi, who can tackle the spin of SRH bowlers well.
The middle order of SRH also looks fine. Kane Willaimson and Manish Pandey will have their task cut out. But they are capable of doing the harder things. Manish Pandey will be the man who will have a point to prove ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup. Pandey wasn’t the part of the limited-overs series, which is enough for him to perform well this season. Pandey Ji does well. Then he can be considered for the World T20, which will be played in India later this year.
Dinesh Karthik and Eoin Morgan will have to perform well for KKR. Last year, Karthik also left his captaincy to concentrate on his batting. But he wasn’t upto the mark despite all that. Morgan was in poor form in the limited-overs series against India, which might worry the KKR fans as we all know what talent he posses.
The bowling of SRH looks in safer hands. The return of Bhuvneshwar Kumar will boost the men in orange. But they will also want Bhuvi to have an injury-free season. In the IPL 2020, Bhuvi was injured in the middle of the season, which caused many problems for SRH. With Bhuvi, they also have Rashid Khan and Mohd Nabi. These two Afghan spinners will thrive on a wicket that supports spin.
The Only Thing, which is lacking for SRH is the fast bowling all-rounder. They can play Jason Holder in place of Nabi. But if the track is supporting spin, then that will not be a good idea. KKR has Andre Russell. But his form and fitness will be worrying for the men in black. Last year, Russell wasn’t in the fine nick. KKR will need him to perform if they are aiming to end their title drought this year.
Shakib Al Hasan is another all-rounder which KKR can have. He is back in the IPL after serving a ban. He is the more experienced all-rounder who knows how to use the Indian pitches. So Shakib looks good for KKR.
T Natarajan is also another fast bowler who selects himself in the squad of Hyderabad. After he made his international debut across all the formats, Natu will be hungry for more success through the IPL.
Kolkata Knight Riders will have t answer a lot of questions to win their first encounter. The players to watch out from their side are Pat Cummins. The Aussie quick had a good season last year. In the Indian slow and low pitches, he might do the damage which KKR wants from him. Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana, India’s two young guns, will need to provide a good start. If KKR doesn’t lose any wickets in the first six overs, they are in the game.
Finally, the KKE skipper Eoin Morgan will be the key to KKR’s success in this year’s tournament. Morgan needs just one innings to get going. If he could promote himself at number four, he will get an advantage of facing more deliveries, and he can also anchor the innings well. Then, Russell, Karthik, Narine, Tripathi, and Cummins can bat around their captain.
The spin of KKR is good. But Narine is no that usual mystery bowler anymore, and Varun Chakravarthy is an inexperienced spinner for them. That’s is why they should include Shakib in their squad, which gives a good balance to the KKR side.
SRH looks like a strong and well balance side on paper. But in IPL, one may never know what KKR can bring. The Shahrukh Khan’s men can spring a surprise and upset the men in the orange team.
Predicted, Probable, Playing XI of Kolkata Knight Riders – Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Varun Chakravarthy, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi.
Predicted, Probable, Playing XI of Sunrisers Hyderabad – David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Vijay Shankar, Mohd Nabi, Rashid, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma.
