Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the ninth game of the season at the iconic Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday. KKR had lost their opening match of the season against Punjab Kings by seven runs (DLS method).
On the other hand, RCB had made a winning start to their campaign, registering a convincing eight-wicket win against Mumbai Indians in their maiden match of the season.
Meanwhile, KKR’s woes have multiplied in the early days of the season. All hopes of their full-time captain Shreyas Iyer returning to the squad are now gone as the Mumbai batter will undergo back surgery and he has been also ruled out of the WTC final against Australia.
Furthermore, their talismanic all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has opted out of IPL 2023 because of unavailability issues. Thus, the franchise has added Jason Roy to the squad.
KKR’s batting unit looked bleak in the opening match against PBKS and Roy’s addition will certainly give them a major boost.
RCB, on the other hand, had come up with a fine performance against MI after Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli scored 73 and 82 runs respectively after their bowling unit did an amazing job. However, RCB’s Rajat Patidar has also been ruled out with a heel injury.
Match Prediction: There is no doubt that RCB will enter the contest as favorites against KKR.
RCB IPL 2023 SQUAD
Wicketkeepers: Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik.
Batters: Faf du Plessis (SA), Finn Allen (NZ), Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks (ENG).
All-rounders: Wanindu Hasaranga (SL), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell (AUS), Shahbaz Ahmed, Sonu Yadav, Manoj Bhandage.
Bowlers: Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood (AUS), Siddarth Kaul, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Karn Sharma, David Willey (ENG), Avinash Singh, Rajan Kumar, Reece Topley (ENG), Himanshu Sharma.
KKR IPL 2023 SQUAD
Wicketkeepers: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (AFG), N. Jagadeesan, Litton Das (BAN).
Batters: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Mandeep Singh, Jason Roy.
All-rounders: Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Andre Russel (WI), Shardul Thakur, David Wiese (NAM).
Bowlers: Lockie Ferguson (NZ), Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine (WI), Tim Southee (NZ), Varun Chakravarthy, Umesh Yadav, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Kulwant Khejroliya.
