IPL 2024 – Match 3: Venkatesh Iyer to open Rinku Singh in Middle; KKR Playing 11 vs SRH
Mitchell Starc will add his experience in the KKR's bowling attack against SRH
In the third match of IPL 2024, the spotlight shifts to the iconic Eden Gardens stadium, where the hometown favourites, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), will clash with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), led by none other than former KKR player, Pat Cummins.
KKR fans will be very happy to welcome their skipper Shreyas Iyer who returns to the team after missing out in the previous season due to an injury. The match will be played in Kolkata at Eden Gardens on March 24th at 7:30 PM.
Last season KKR finished seventh in the points table but got promising stars in the name of Rinku Singh, Suyash Sharma and Anukul Roy. The opening combination was the biggest issue for the Knights and Russell’s inconsistency was also hitting them in the big time they bought Sherfane Rutherford as Russell’s backup for this season.
Starc Returns To IPL
KKR in the auction made some good buys before going behind Starc heavily which was the biggest highlight of the IPL 2024 auction, KKR surely needed an overseas and an experienced pacer but still spending 24.75 crore on Starc was a bit shocking considering his recent form.
Other than Starc, Sri Lanka’s Dushmantha Chameera is the only overseas player in this team and he is also racing against time to get fit for the tournament.
KKR although have a good young Indian pace unit consisting of the likes of Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya and Bihar’s young pace sensation Sakib Hussain.
KKR might have issues with their pace bowling but their Spin department remains sorted with the experience of Sunil Narine, the mystery of Varun Chakravarthy and the aggression of Suyash Sharma which makes a perfect trio of spinners for KKR this trio did considerably well last year even Anukul Roy partnered them for few games and he played his role well, for Sunil Narine’s backup KKR have bought Mujeeb Ur Rahman as well.
KKR will look to have a settled opening combination this season with their options being Phill Salt, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Manish Pandey, KS Bharat and U-19 Indian star Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
An opening combo of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Venkatesh Iyer as Shreyas Iyer is expected to bat at 3 with Nitish Rana continuing at 4.
KKR vs SRH Pitch conditions at Eden Gardens
Once again Edens is expected to help spinners more than pacers, the average first-inning score here is 160. Spinners’ bowling average in Eden is 27.25. We can expect KKR to play their spin bowling trio in this match, they can also consider having Anukul as their impact player, someone who can provide some good batting and a full quota of four overs with the ball.
KKR Probable Playing XI vs SRH
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakravarthy, Chetan Sakariya
Impact Player – Harshit Rana/Anukul Roy.
