Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell roles under the microscope as slumping Kolkata Knight Riders face Mumbai Indians

Aditya Devavrat 22:07 27/04/2019
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  • Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard.

    Two teams with contrasting fortunes face off on Sunday at Eden Gardens as Mumbai Indians show up in Kolkata on the back of a clinical win over table-topping Chennai Super Kings that gave them some breathing room in the race for the IPL 2019 playoff spots.

    Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, have lost six straight after a demoralising defeat to Rajasthan Royals in their last outing, throwing away a good start to the season and leaving their playoff hopes in peril.

    A loss to Mumbai won’t be terminal, but it would leave them needing to win all their remaining games after not winning for three weeks.

    POLLARD, RUSSELL FACE OFF…OR NOT

    Both sides have two power-hitting West Indian all-rounders who are being underused by their teams. There have been calls for Andre Russell to bat at No 4 for KKR, and the same suggestion has been made for Mumbai Indians with Kieron Pollard – though calling him an all-rounder when he hasn’t bowled a ball this season is a stretch.

    Russell is still Kolkata’s leading scorer and sixth on the IPL’s overall charts for this season – which shows how much the Knight Riders’ top order has struggled. Bringing him up the order could be the shot in the arm their playoff hopes need.

    Meanwhile, Mumbai’s top order has been consistent if not always explosive, and they’ve had Hardik Pandya for that. Since his match-winning 83 off 31 against Kings XI Punjab, Pollard has played five innings and not faced more than 12 deliveries, including two occasions where he came to the crease but didn’t face a ball.

    KKR’S INDIAN BOWLERS UNDER SCRUTINY

    While much has been made of Kolkata’s top-order struggles, their bowling woes have gone somewhat under the radar, yet they have the worst death-bowling economy of all teams this season. When you’re worse than Royal Challengers Bangalore in that department you have a problem.

    Promising seamer Prasidh Krishna has struggled in the death – his last 1.2 overs against Rajasthan went for 23 runs – but KKR have had issues with most of their Indian bowlers, apart from Piyush Chawla. They went as far as to drop Kuldeep Yadav for the last game after the left-arm wrist-spinner’s horror season, with his latest outing leaving him in tears.

    Yet his replacement, left-arm pacer Prithvi Raj, didn’t fare much better, and it might be that Yadav is in line for a swift recall. Mumbai opener Rohit Sharma has had well-documented struggles against spin, and Chawla and Yadav bowling in tandem could be the best strategy against the Indians skipper.

    LIKELY XIs

    Kolkata Knight Riders: Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Carlos Brathwaite, Rinku Singh, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, M Prasidh Krishna

    Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah

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