IPL 2020: Match 42, KKR vs DC- KKR Predicted Playing XI

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are in a spot of bother in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Teams in the bottom half of the points table are breathing down their neck. In 10 matches, the Men in Gold and Purple have won a mere five matches at a poor net run rate of -0.828.

They would be down on confidence after the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat them by eight wickets. Dinesh Karthik and Co are next set to lock horns with the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday, October 24 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The Capitals, on the other hand, are placed handsomely and need one more win to almost seal their berth in the playoffs. As far as the Knight Riders are concerned, they might mull some changes after their hefty defeat last time around against RCB in Abu Dhabi.

Here is the Predicted Playing XI for the Kolkata Knight Riders for KKR vs DC game: 

Openers (Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill)

The Knights shouldn’t tinker with their opening combination of Rahul Tripathi and Shubman Gill. Even as the latter has played consistently as the opener, Tripathi has moved around in the batting order and it hasn’t helped his cause.

In the last game, Tripathi fell prey to Mohammed Siraj. Shubman, on the other hand, is the leading run-scorer for the Knights in the ongoing edition. But it’s his strike-rate under 120 that has concerned the Knights.

He needs to find a way of upping his scoring rate in order to help KKR score big in the powerplay. The pair needs to fire on all cylinders.

Middle-order (Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (C), Tom Banton)

In the middle-order, barring Eoin Morgan, none of the other batters have been able to make much of an impact. The Knights’ captain has 278 runs from 10 matches at an average and strike-rate of 39.71 and 125.79 respectively.

The Englishman can’t afford to lose his form and consistency. Nitish Rana got a fifty early in the tournament, but he has entered into a form slump. Dinesh Karthik has looked good in patches and he needs to show more consistency.

Tom Banton hit a four and a six last time, but he got out as well. The Knights may well leave him out for the experienced Sunil Narine.

Bowlers (Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav)

In the bowling department, Lockie Ferguson has arguably been the standout performer for KKR despite playing only two matches. The New Zealand speedster has four wickets at an economy of four.

Even in the last game that KKR lost, he bowled with venom and didn’t allow the RCB bowlers to dominate. Pat Cummins hasn’t had the best of tournaments by any stretch of the imagination, picking up only three wickets thus far.

Varun Chakravarthy has been a silent performer for them. The tweaker has seven wickets at an economy of 7.27. Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna also needs to pull his socks up.