IPL 2018: Match 3, KKR vs RCB: Battle between promise and potential at Eden Gardens

Rain threat looming large over tonight's contest in Kolkata.

Kohli - Karthik will lead their respective teams tonight. (CollageMaker)

Kolkata Knight Riders will be hosting Royal Challengers Bangalore tonight at the Eden Gardens in their campaign opener. While KKR have a new captain in Dinesh Karthik, RCB boasts of having the mercurial Virat Kohli as their leader, someone every IPL fan will eagerly follow this season. 

With Kohli, the team also boasts of having the likes of Brendon McCullum and Quinton De Kock in their batting ranks. Umesh Yadav who was playing for KKR until last year will now be seen in the opposite camp as will be Colin De Grandhomme and Chris Woakes. A batting heavy side packed with all-rounders, RCB still looks a bit weak in their bowling attack. Yuzvendra Chahal will be their lead spinner and will surely play on a turning Eden track. 

KKR, on the other hand, will rely heavily on specialists to do the job. They have Uthappa and Lynn at the top to give them a good start with Karthik taking responsibility in the middle order to guide his team. Then they have the hard-hitting West Indian Andre Russell donning the finisher's role for them. 

Bowling wise they have a top quality spin-heavy attack in Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine. Mitchell Johnson and Tom Curran are the two foreign quicks they will heavily rely upon as well. 

What eleven does both teams filed especially with rain in the last 48 hours in Kolkata will be interesting to see. 

Toss: KKR wins the toss and opted to bowl

Playing XI's:

Kolkata Knight Riders  Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Mitchell Johnson, Kuldeep Yadav

Royal Challengers Bangalore : Quinton de Kock(w), Brendon McCullum, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Chris Woakes, Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal
 

 
 

By Anshuman Roy - 08 Apr, 2018

    Share Via