Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will once again begin their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), in Match 3 of IPL 2021, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. KKR had started the 2020 edition against SRH as well. Later in the tournament, SRH had crushed their Playoffs hopes.
Hyderabad have been one of the most consistent IPL franchise in the last five years, making it to the Playoffs on each occasion. Kolkata, on the other hand, have not been able to emulate the success of 2012 and 2014 of late. They will hope to finally nail a final-four spot, having missed out on the same on net run rate in the last two seasons.
Team News
Given that Chennai is not a batting paradise, especially for those who like to hit from the word go, SRH are likely to opt for Kane Williamson in this particular match. Jonny Bairstow, who was in excellent form during the recently concluded India-England ODI series, may not feature. Sunrisers may go for Wriddhiman Saha, who showed a lot of promise in the few games that he got to play in IPL 2020. Mohammad Nabi is also likely to feature alongside Rashid Khan in the XI.
The choice between Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine is going to be a decisive one for KKR. Given the spin factor in Chennai, Harbhajan Singh, who played two seasons for CSK, will most likely be included in the XI by KKR alongside Varun Chakravarthy.
Fantasy Tips
- Shubman Gill, David Warner, and Manish Pandey are highly dependable top-order options.
- Andre Russell and Rashid Khan are undroppable fantasy T20 cricket players (we hope you know that).
- Pat Cummins and Bhuvneshwar Kumar can be handy with the wickets, even in Chennai.
Probable XIs
SRH: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammad Nabi, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan
KKR: Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan/Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Fantasy XI
David Warner (c)
Shubman Gill
Kane Williamson
Manish Pandey
Abdul Samad
Dinesh Karthik
Pat Cummins
Rashid Khan (vc)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Varun Chakravarthy
