IPL 2016, GLvsKKR: Match Preview

Kanpur: After facing a crushing defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Suresh Raina led Gujarat Lions will have to get their bearings to get past Kolkata Knight Riders in a must-win game in order to remain in the race of play-offs in IPL 2016 at the Green Park stadium here on Thursday.

Raina, who is back to IPL after a brief furlough, will play to an advantage having played a lot on Green Park stadium during his early days. This incidentally is the first IPL match at this ground.

Gautam Gambhir led KKR, who have already won seven out of their 12 games, are just a win away from the play offs.will focus on winning today’s game to reach the first destination.

Gujarat Lions-

• Skipper Raina’s return can act as a boon for the side.
• Batsmen like Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith and Aaron Finch will leave no stone unturned to demoralise opponents bowling attack.
• Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo have to play some extraordinary cricket in today’s must-win game.
• Bowling department has to really perform specially after their rather dismal show in the last game against RCB.
• Dale Steyn and James Faulkner, who are warming the bench for long, could be tried to strengthen the bowling attack.

Kolkata Knight Riders-

• The side will miss the fireworks of Andre Russell, who will not play today’s game due to injury.
• Batting will revolve around Gautam Gambhir, Robin Utthappa, Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan and Surya Kumar Yadav.
• Knights will hope for another destructive innings from Yusuf Pathan, who has had sporadic performances so far.
• KKR, which is a powerhouse of bowlers, will expect wickets from Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav and Shakib Al Hasan.

Teams-

Gujarat Lions (From): Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina(c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik(w), Aaron Finch, Dwayne Bravo, Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Shivil Kaushik, Sarabjit Ladda, Akshdeep Nath, James Faulkner, Pradeep Sangwan, Paras Dogra, Shadab Jakati, Eklavya Dwivedi, Jaydev Shah, Dale Steyn, Andrew Tye, Umang Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ishan Kishan

Kolkata Knight Riders (From): Robin Uthappa(w), Gautam Gambhir(c), Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Suryakumar Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Ankit Rajpoot, Morne Morkel, Jaydev Unadkat, Chris Lynn, Colin Munro, Sheldon Jackson, Rajagopal Sathish, Manan Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jason Holder, Brad Hogg, Kuldeep Yadav, Shaun Tait