After a thrilling victory over the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Monday, our Shers head east to take on the Kolkata Knights Riders at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.

Photo: SPORTZPICS

Aamne Saamne

While the opponents hold the upper hand in the overall head-to-head battle, the results between the two teams was evenly split in the previous campaign, with both teams winning away from home in convincing fashion.

Chasing 125 in 13 overs at the Eden Gardens last season, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul, threw a boundary-bash and forged a 116-run partnership in just 58 deliveries, helping the team earn an emphatic nine-wicket victory over the Knight Riders.

Batting da Baadshah

The Universe Boss continued his fine form and scored a stylish 79 off just 47 balls in the KXIP’s first game of the campaign, helping the team pile up a competitive score on the board. In his time in the IPL, Gayle has enjoyed playing at the Eden Gardens and has amassed 540 runs in just 11 innings at this ground at a mammoth strike rate of 160.71. With form and history on his side, the meteorological department in Kolkata should be expecting a Gayle Storm heading in their direction.  

KKR’s Nitish Rana enjoyed a stellar start to his campaign as he steered his team’s brilliant chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad with a well-made 68 in 47 deliveries in their first match of the season. The southpaw has scored over 300 runs in each of his last two IPL campaigns and given his form, Rana will likely be the lynchpin of a strong KKR batting lineup.

Bowling de Kings

Despite going for a few runs in his second over against the Rajasthan Royals, Mujeeb came back strong, leaking only 14 runs in his next two and also picking up two wickets in a space of four deliveries in his final over, in what was the game-clinching moment for the Kings. Since his debut last season, only three spinners have picked up more scalps than Mujeeb, but his average of 1.33 wickets per match ranked the best among his contemporaries.

While his bat did the talking in his team’s previous match, all-rounder Andre Russell also managed to impart some damage with the ball, picking up two wickets in the three overs that he bowled. Deceptively quick with a sharp bouncer, Russell is capable of picking up timely wickets, as evident from his exploits in the previous match, where he managed to dismiss the dangerous duo of David Warner and Yusuf Pathan.

Mudde ki Baat

Both teams will be high confidence after their victories in their opening fixtures of the campaign. Both needed late heroics to earn those victories and with match-winners galore on either side, a great bowling spell or a brilliant batting effort could prove to be the deciding factor in the contest.

Early momentum can set the tone for the rest of the campaign and hence, both teams will be aiming to make it four points out of four when they battle in the City of Joy. With the Eden Gardens being a typically high-scoring ground with short boundaries, this contest has all the makings of a high-scoring thriller.

Yaad Rakhiyo

• Ashwin’s 19 wickets are the joint second most against KKR in IPL.
• Gayle’s 615 runs are the 4th most vs KKR in IPL after David Warner (762), Rohit Sharma (757) and Suresh Raina (746).
• Chris Gayle is just four sixes away from completing 300 maximums in the IPL. No other player has even hit 200.
• Narine has got joint most wickets (26) against KXIP in IPL along with Umesh Yadav.

Probable XI

Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Mohammed Shami, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

The team is unlikely to deter from the winning combination from the first match and will hope for a similar outcome. But Nicholas Pooran may not be 100 percent following his collision with Ankit Rajpoot in the opening game, which means Rahul could don the gloves and potentially make way for David Miller.

NOTE: The aforementioned line-up is an educated guess at best, and the final decision rests with the captain and the team management depending on various external factors.