The 3rd match of the ongoing IPL 2021 will see Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) facing off against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium in April 11, 2021. The match will be a night affair beginning from 7.30 PM IST.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, none of the participating franchises will play a match at their home grounds and all matches will be played at neutral venues.
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The IPL 2021 will be played across six cities- Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Ahmedabad will also host the playoffs and the final of the IPL 2021 on May 30.
The match will see two amazingly talented teams taking on each other and TEAM COC presents the Predicted Playing XIs for the SRH v KKR match at Chennai.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD (SRH)
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have been one of the most consistent teams in the IPL when it comes to qualifying for the playoffs, having done the same since IPL 2016, when they won the tournament, and also played the final in IPL 2018 as well. They finished 3rd in the IPL 2020 season in UAE and will look to qualify for the finals as well.
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Before the IPL 2021 auctions, SRH had released players like Sanjay Yadav, B Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, and Yarra Prithviraj. And in the IPL 2021 auction, SRH bought only three players in Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, J Suchith.
However, before the IPL 2021 season began, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh pulled out of the tournament and SRH announced England batsman Jason Roy as his replacement.
Looking at their squad, SRH has retained the majority of their players from IPL 2020 and it seems their playing XI is expected to remain the same. However, given that they will be playing the majority of their matches in Chennai and Delhi, both heavens for spinners, SRH might opt for a more spin-based bowling attack.
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David Warner is expected to open the innings with Wriddhiman Saha, who is a good player of spin bowling. The middle-order sees Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson shouldering the responsibility of scoring in tough middle overs, with Vijay Shankar or Kedar Jadhav for company.
Given that Chennai's pitch was slow and difficult to bat in the first match, SRH might opt for a trifecta of spinners with Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan being the main spinners with Abhishek Sharma for assistance.
These three players are gun batsmen as well, giving SRH many batting options as well with Nabi and Abhishek playing as finishers.
SRH has one of the best fast bowling lineups without having many express pace bowlers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is widely regarded as one of the best white-ball bowlers and is coming off a good series against England at home.
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Partnering with him will be yorker king T Natarajan and Sandeep Sharma, who has done well in IPL for a number of years.
The David Warner-led side will be eager on doing better than their IPL 2020 performance and play the final and even win the trophy for the second time.
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (KKR)
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have finished on 5th spot in the last two IPL seasons and they had made the playoffs in IPL 2018. This will be the first time Eoin Morgan will captain the KKR team in a whole IPL season, after taking over from Dinesh Karthik in mid-IPL 2020 season.
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Morgan seemed to have played a part in his franchise’s IPL 2021 auction strategy as well, as KKR bought Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer, and Pawan Negi to bolster their squad.
KKR had some issues with performances from their two overseas players in Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, as both struggled with fitness and form throughout the tournament, hurting their team.
In their first match against SRH in Chennai, KKR might open with Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi, though they tried various opening combinations with Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana doing the job with Gill at the other end. But Tripathi is a natural opener and playing in powerplay is his specialty.
Nitish Rana has been the backbone of the KKR side at the no.3 spot, with Eoin Morgan the captain and Dinesh Karthik, the keeper and vice-captain to follow him. Andre Russell has been a threat with the bat and had an exceptional IPL 2019 scoring over 500 runs at a strike rate of over 200.
KKR would hope that Russell regains that form in IPL 2021 and win them matches. Shakib Al Hasan returns to his home in KKR where he had won two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014 and will be expected to finish matches with Russell.
Shakib will also be expected to partner up with Varun Chakravarthy as front-line spinners for KKR and one might see Harbhajan Singh coming in as the third spinner, given the match is in Chennai, where Harbhajan played for two seasons.
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Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna are expected to shoulder the fast bowling duties with Andre Russell supporting them as well.
KKR has always shown potential in the previous tournaments, but this time they need to walk the talk, and making it into the finals should be their primary goal atleast.
SRH COC Predicted Playing XI:
David Warner (C), Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma
KKR COC Predicted Playing XI:
Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
