Kolkata Knight Riders will host the Delhi Capitals in the Eden Gardens for the 26th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2019 season. DC had defeated KKR in Delhi via Super Over and this return match will give KKR a chance to exact revenge.
Kolkata has been on a roll with four wins in six matches and is placed on the second spot in the IPL 2019 points table. Led by the brilliance of Andre Russell, who has single-handedly won them atleast three of those matches, the Dinesh Karthik-led side is looking to gain as much as possible given that they will play three consecutive games at home.
KKR has been nice with their planning and execution but their strategy of going after the bowling at all times failed to pay off against CSK in their last match and that is something to ponder for their team management. Given that they have made Eden their fortress, Kuldeep and Chawla will be trusted with keeping it the same way.
Delhi Capitals have been their own biggest enemy given that they have suffered more collapses than the stock exchange. Their infamous collapse of 7/8 against KXIP has to be a moment of IPL 2019 and Shreyas Iyer needs to be clever in using his young brigade wisely to keep Capitals on the path of playoffs qualification, which will be achieved if they win five out of their remaining eight matches.
They are also dealing with a slew of injuries to their players and their pace bowler Harshal Patel has already been ruled out of the IPL 2019 with a fractured hand. This means they are now short on resources as well and need to man manage nicely.
Toss: Delhi Capitals won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Playing XIs:
KKR: Joe Denly, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (w/c), Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna.
DC: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (w), Colin Ingram, Chris Morris, Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Keemo Paul, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma.
