We have all the key details of the third match of the Indian Premier League between Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders, so that you don’t miss any action of the high voltage clash.
We’ll have all of the following important information for every single T20 fixture from Indian cricket’s premier T20 competition, right here on Sport360.com.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: April 7, 2017 (Friday)
Time: 18:30 GST, 20:00 local time (IST), 14:30 GMT
Venue: Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot.
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Sony Six, Sony Six HD (English), Sony Max, Sony Max HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE: Sport360.com.
TEAM NEWS, SQUADS, PREDICTED XIs
GL SQUAD:
Suresh Raina (C), Akshdeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Dwayne Bravo, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik (W), Shivil Kaushik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Brendon McCullum, Munaf Patel, Pratham Singh, Jason Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Shelley Shaurya, Nathu Singh, Dwayne Smith, Tejas Baroka, Andrew Tye.
The Gujarat team had a good debut season last year and finished as the table toppers, but failed to qualify for the finals. Their team is filled with top-notch batsmen and they have a a variety of options in Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Jason Roy and Aaron Finch. Their captain Suresh Raina is an IPL legend and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik is in a rich vein of form.
All smiles before the carnage these two will unleash on their opponents. Are you excited to see them in action together? #GameMaariChhe pic.twitter.com/VvDnIdShe2
— The Gujarat Lions (@TheGujaratLions) April 6, 2017
Injury has ruled out star all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo, but James Faulkner will look to chip-in in their absence. Gujarat will also look to add an uncapped Indian batsman in their mix, like they did last year with Akshdeep Nath.
The pace attack is spearheaded by Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni, who was excellent for Gujarat last year. There also might be a toss up amongst Basil Thampi, Manpreet Gony and Nathu Singh to fill in the spot of the third pacer.
One of Shadab Jakati or Shivil Kaushik will fill the spinner’s spot while Raina can pitch in with his off spin to.
PREDICTED GL XI: McCullum, Roy, Raina (c), Finch, D Karthik (wk), Faulkner, Akshdeep, Praveen, Kulkarni, Gony/Nathu/Thampi, Jakati.
KKR SQUAD:
Gautam Gambhir (C), Trent Boult, Darren Bravo, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin de Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Rovman Powell, Ankit Rajpoot, R Sanjay Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan, Robin Uthappa (W), Chris Woakes, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders did not make it to the IPl play-offs last season.
In terms of consistency, the KKR have been solid every season.
But the absence of Andre Russell and the form of Sunil Narine will be a concern. Added to that, Umesh Yadav is set to miss the first few games as well.
But Kolkata are known to defend their fortress well. Batting mainstays Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey will constitute the top order, while Yusuf Pathan, Surya Kumar Yadav and Robin Uthappa are capable of doing some damage in the middle order.
Chris Lynn’s outstanding Big Bash League form would earn a place for him in the playing XI.
KKR will also get to pick two out of Chris Woakes, Colin de Grandhomme and Shakib Al Hasan as their all-rounder. Piyush Chawla is a regular feature in KKR playing XI and in-form Kuldeep Yadav will also be eager to showcase his skills.
They have good fast bowling options in Trent Boult and Ankit Rajpoot as well.
PREDICTED KKR XI: Gambhir (c), Uthappa (wk), Lynn, Pandey, Y Pathan, SK Yadav, Al-Hasan, C Woakes, Chawla, Narine, Boult.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
GL: L L W L W
KKR: L W L W L
MATCH PREDICTION
GL to win.
