After registering a historic win over Gujarat Titans, Kolkata Knight Riders faced a 23-run defeat against SunRisers Hyderabad in a high-scoring match. Now, the Nitish Rana-led side will be taking on the five-time champions Mumbai Indians in the next IPL 2023 match on Sunday. Young batter Rinku Singh has been in a blistering form as after smashing five sixes against Gujarat Titans, he went on to score his maiden IPL half-century against SRH. It is highly likely that the team management might give a chance to Jason Roy in the match against MI.
Rinku Singh will be the biggest threat with the bat for MI since the left-hander has smacked an unbeaten 48 and 58 in his last two outings batting at No 7.
KKR skipper Rana banished his ordinary run with the bat, scoring 75 off 41 balls on Friday, and announcing his return to form. On the other hand, in his last two outings with the bat, Rinku has alone hit a grand total of five fours and 10 sixes while executing two high-quality knocks in the death overs. The focus will once again be on the talented young batter in the KKR line-up.
However, KKR have some concerns too in the form of their all-rounder Andre Russell, who has struggled with the bat in this IPL. Russell could not complete his quota of overs against SRH in Kolkata on Friday night as he suffered cramps, but his three wickets did keep KKR in the game for long.
It remains to be seen if KKR would want to try out the explosive English batter Jason Roy at the top, given that Gurbaz has performed his role at the top with flair. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have been amongst the wickets for KKR, who also have Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das joining them recently.
KKR Predicted XI vs MI: Jason Roy, N Jagadeesan (WK), Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Suyash Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy
(With PTI Inputs)