Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 11 (KKR Playing XI) & Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing 11 (SRH Playing XI), IPL 2024, Match 3:
Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be taking on each other in the third game of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024). The seventeenth edition of the tournament got underway on Friday (March 22) with the game between defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai.
In the second game of the tournament, Punjab Kings are scheduled to lock horns against Delhi Capitals before KKR and SRH take on each other. The match between KKR and SRH is scheduled to take place on Saturday (March 23) at the Eden Gardens. Before the game begins, we are taking a look at the probable playing XIs of both the teams.
KKR Playing XI:
Openers: Phil Salt (wk), Venkatesh Iyer
KKR look set to have a new opening combination for IPL 2024. Phil Salt and Venkatesh Iyer are looking likely to open the innings for the two-time champions this season. Salt was originally not a part of the KKR squad but was later signed up as a replacement for Jason Roy.
He played for Delhi Capitals last year and scored 218 runs in 9 games. On the other hand, Iyer scored 404 runs with the help of two half-centuries and one century. Rahmanullah Gurbaz could also open the innings as an impact player. In such a scenario, Iyer is likely to be demoted to number three.
Middle-order and allrounder: Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell
Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell form a formidable middle-order for KKR. Both Rana and Rinku enjoyed good outings with the bat last year, scoring 413 and 474 runs respectively. On the other hand, Russell scored 227 runs while Iyer missed the entire season due to a back injury.
Bowlers: Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy
KKR are likely to play the game with two spinners and as many pacers. Mitchell Starc is likely to spearhead the pace attack and will have Harshit Rana as the bowling partner while Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy will be the spinners.
SRH Playing XI:
Openers: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma
Just like KKR, SRH will have a new opening combination too for IPL 2024. Left-arm batsman Abhishek Sharma is set to open the innings with Australia star Travis Head. Sharma scored more than 200 runs last year and will be eyeing another productive campaign while Head is gearing up for his first appearance in the IPL since 2017.
Middle-order and allrounder: Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed
Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Abdul Samad and Shahbaz Ahmed give enough strength and depth to SRH’s batting order. While Tripathi scored 273 runs in IPL 2023, Markram and Klaasen scored 248 and 448 runs respectively.
Klaasen recently impressed in the SA20 as well, finishing the tournament as the second highest run-scorer. On the other hand, the likes of Samad and Ahmed are known for their power-hitting down the order and will be looking to add the finishing touches.
Bowlers: Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik
SRH are likely to play the game with three pacers and one spinner. Captain Pat Cummins will spearhead the attack and will have the company of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umran Malik while Mayank Markande will take care of the spin department.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram (c), Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed , Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.