KKR vs RR Preview: Kolkata Knight Riders hope to finish top-order woes, shedding streak in opposition to Rajasthan Royals

Guilty of constructing too many modifications on the prime, Kolkata Knight Riders wish to discover a profitable mixture in opposition to Rajasthan Royals and snap their five-match shedding streak within the IPL right here on Monday.

The type of Venkatesh Iyer, who’s experiencing second season blues, has lots to do with the modifications KKR have been pressured to make usually on the prime of the order.

Venkatesh’s performances have been underwhelming to say the least after a season that helped him get into the Indian workforce. After his struggles on the prime, the workforce tried him within the middle-order however that too didn’t work.

The southpaw was again opening alongside Aaron Finch within the final recreation however runs abandoned him once more.

Making the play-offs from right here appears inconceivable for KKR who desperately want to seek out their greatest XI and keep it up for the rest of the competitors.

To each cricket lover world wide…

Thank you for at this time. For celebrating Warnie with a lot love. We’ve seen it, we have felt it.

We’ll proceed to play, to struggle, #ForWarnie, and for all our great followers. We’re grateful for what’s been an emotional, lovely day. 💗

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 30, 2022

“A number of chopping and altering is going on, it’s been troublesome to arrange the precise mixture, with all accidents not serving to as properly. We want to stay collectively, play some fearless cricket, not be conservative with the bat.

“Five more matches remaining, we need to play well, show belief and give something back to the team and the management, forget about the past, start fresh and back your instinct,” mentioned skipper Shreyas Iyer after the final recreation.

Shreyas has had an honest run as a batter with 290 runs at 36.25 however he has not received sufficient assist from his teammates. In his first season as KKR captain, Shreyas has proven promise however must encourage his troops to script a turnaround.

Alongside Venkatesh, the dismal run of one other retained participant Varun Chakaravarthy has damage the workforce. However, the transfer to drop him within the earlier recreation didn’t yield the specified outcomes as KKR misplaced their fifth recreation in a row.

The trio of Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav and Sunil Narine has been spectacular and shall be aiming to maintain the in-form Jos Buttler quiet.

Rajasthan rely lots on Buttler and his 566 runs at 70.75 are a giant purpose why they discover themselves within the top-four. As the Englishman can’t be anticipated to fireside in each recreation, skipper Sanju Samson must step up and be extra constant.

They are arguably the very best bowling facet within the competitors however couldn’t defend 159 of their earlier recreation in opposition to Mumbai Indians on account of heavy dew.

With 19 wickets at 13.68, Yuzvendra Chahal leads the bowling charts this season and alongside R Ashwin, Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna, the Rajasthan assault has the power to defend even below-par totals.

However, Royals shall be in search of a much-improved batting effort to minimise the dew issue.

Teams

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Aman Khan, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammed Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell.