IPL 10, Match 37, SRH v KKR – Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted XI

Kolkata Knight Riders are having a dream run in IPL 2017. They have succumbed to just two losses in 9 games thus far which shows their consistency. KKR’s skipper Gambhir Gambhir has led them brilliantly and has a lot of runs to his credit as a batsman as well.

The 2-time champion will now go head-to-head with the defending champion Sunrisers Hyderabad in their den at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. This game will challenge KKR the most as SRH are unbeaten at home this season. The David Warner-led team thrashed Kings XI Punjab in the last game with the skipper himself leading the way with a 27-ball 51.

KKR too are coming off a near-perfect game against the Daredevils where they strode to victory with 7 wickets in hand and 22 balls to spare. Chasing big totals with ease has been a hallmark of KKR’s campaign this year. They have a settled XI with most players aware of their role in the side. Gambhir has been vocal about maintaining the momentum as the tournament is into the second phase so KKR will go into this game all guns blazing.

Let us have a look at the predicted XI for KKR for their away game:

Openers (Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine)

He may be struggling to find his way back into the Indian team but Gautam Gambhir is having a great time in IPL 2017. He has dominated the bowlers and has scored his runs very quickly. His strike rate of 136.72 is much more than his career strike rate of 121.97. The best aspect of his batting this year has been his consistency and finishing the job in hand by himself.

All 4 of his half-centuries have come in chases and he was unbeaten 3 times. The 35-year old is also the current holder of the orange cap and has formed a decent opening combination with Sunil Narine. Not many people would have envisaged the West Indian doing so well with the bat. His strike of 178.48 this year means that he is doing a great job for KKR at the top of the order.

Middle Order (Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Sheldon Jackson)

All three – Uthappa, Pandey and Pathan – have been the mainstays of KKR in the middle order and are having a terrific run in this IPL. Uthappa, in particular, has looked in excellent touch. Though he started slowly in the tournament, the 31-year-old has caught up with the others by virtue of scoring 4 half-centuries in the last six games.

Pandey and Yusuf have made the No. 4 and 5 position of their own by putting their hands up whenever the team needed them. Sheldon Jackson will be selected more as a fail-safe option as he is capable of constructing an innings just in case of a collapse. The Saurashtra batsman has scored a lot of runs in first-class cricket but made his IPL debut in the last game at the age of 30. He will have to add quick runs batting at No. 6.

All-rounders (Colin de Grandhomme and Chris Woakes)

Both all-rounders have to contribute with the bat which they haven’t done thus far. Both have, though, bowled well so far this year and contributed well in RCB’s 49-run rout last week. Grandhomme and Woakes are very able batters and have 19 hundreds between them in first-class cricket. They will be disappointed with their efforts thus far but have enough time to improve on them.

Bowlers (Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav and Nathan Coulter-Nile)

Despite playing just 4 games, Coulter-Nile has 11 wickets to his name. His fitness has been under scrutiny but otherwise, he has delivered the goods with the ball. Gambhir’s nature of being an attacking captain has worked in favour of the Australian as he has bowled attacking lines early in the innings.

Kuldeep will again partner Narine in the spin department and will be a handful against the Dhawan-Warner combination as he will turn the ball away from the left-handers. The chinaman bowler has bowled extremely well this year as he has mixed it up in the middle overs.

It will be a tough decision to leave out Piyush Chawla but with the presence of a few left-handers in the SRH side, Gambhir will opt for Umesh Yadav instead of the leg-spinner. Yadav has been amongst the wickets this year and gives the out and out fast bowling option to Gautam Gambhir.