Internet Desk: It will be an interesting battle at Rajiv Gandhi International stadium on Saturday as Sunrisers Hyderabad hosts Kolkata Knight Riders. Both teams will go into the match with a loss in their last match. Sunrisers would be looking to put up an improved show in their home ground to register their first win of the season. Knight Riders would also be keen to get back to winning ways in the Indian Premier League following their loss against Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens.
Sunrisers suffered a 45-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening game with RCB’s Virat Kohli, A B de Villiers and Shane Watson having a blast with the bat against the hapless Hyderabad bowlers.
Gautam Gambhir and his men suffered a reverse against Mumbai Indians, after comprehensively winning their first match against Delhi Daredevils.
The Knight Riders will definitely get a boost if they include mystery spinner Sunil Narine in the playing XI tomorrow. The mystery spinner was surprisingly rested in the last game against Mumbai Indians. The result – Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler took full advantage of the Knight Riders bowling without Narine as Mumbai chased the target with ease.
The Shahrukh Khan-owned outfit has some classy batsmen in its ranks as well, including Robin Uthappa, skipper Gautam Gambhir, Russel and Manish Pandey.
The Sunrisers too boasts of a strong line-up and potential match winners in Captain David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh.
It remains to be seen whether Yuvraj, who sustained an injury during the recent World T20, would be available for tomorrow’s match.
The form of some of the top-order batsmen, including Dhawan and Williamson, has been a matter of concern and they would look to come out all guns blazing.
Sunrisers has some seasoned and also promising young players, including Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Karn Sharma and new acquisition Mustafizur Rahman, in the bowling department.
It will be interesting to see if Knight Riders pick Shakib al Hasan ahead of Brad Hogg or not. The inclusion of the Bangladesh all rounder will provide more balance to the Knight Riders squad. If Shakib does play tomorrow, it will be an interesting duel between him and his compatriot Mustafizur Rahman.