No time to pause for Kolkata Knight Riders in bid to break Wankhede jinx
Mumbai are coming into the game after a five-day break but KKR are playing their second game in 48 hours
Nagraj Gollapudi
15-Apr-2023
Big Picture - Knight Riders seek quick fixes
Forty eight hours after playing at home against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders play an away match, which happens to be an afternoon game. Mumbai Indians, their opponents, on the other hand, will start the home contest after a five-day break. Knight Riders are among three teams - along with Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings - who will play back-to-back matches this IPL within a 48-hour turnaround; that is, a night game, followed by an afternoon game two days later.
Knight Riders, who landed in Mumbai late afternoon on Saturday, are unlikely to express their displeasure at the schedule in public, but the paucity of any downtime could be a key factor as they attempt to breach Mumbai's fortress. Incredibly, Knight Riders have beaten Mumbai at Wankhede just once - in 2012 (overall they have won at the venue only four times). However, Nitish Rana's team would also point out that Knight Riders have won the last three contests between the teams.
Both teams have significant question marks to address. For Knight Riders, it is the beating their fast bowlers have been getting. Overall this season, their seamers have recorded the worst numbers in terms of average, strike rate and economy. They have also taken the lowest number of wickets - seven - despite having experienced heads like Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson.
Fitness concerns over Andre Russell have compounded their pain. Russell bowled for the first time this season on Friday, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, before leaving the ground after delivering 2.1 overs. India allrounder Shardul Thakur, who bowled just five deliveries against Sunrisers to wrap Russell's third over, has played mainly as a middle-order batter.
Mumbai, too, have struggled with their fast bowling - their quicks have bagged just eight wickets in three matches so far. Jofra Archer, their main strike bowler this season, has sat out the last two matches due to an elbow issue. Archer, who had a light bowling session on Saturday afternoon, just before the team's training began, is also under a fitness cloud.
IPL 2023 form guide
Mumbai Indians: WLL (most recent match first)
Kolkata Knight Riders: LWWL
Kolkata Knight Riders: LWWL
Team news - David Wiese could replace Andre Russell
If Archer is absent, Riley Meredith is set to continue.
Knight Riders will keep their fingers crossed over Russell's fitness - he reportedly suffered cramps. If he is benched, then David Wiese could be a likely replacement.
Toss and Impact player strategy
Batting second has been a winning card at the Wankhede Stadium. Knight Riders should continue to utilise Suyash Sharma as their Impact Player (in combination with Venkatesh Iyer), while Mumbai will look at swapping Tim David and Jason Behrendorff after starting with three overseas players.
Mumbai Indians
Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Nehal Wadhera, 7 Hrithik Shokeen, 8 Arshad Khan, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Riley Meredith, 11 Jason Behrendoff
Possible bat-first XI: Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Tim David, 7 Nehal Wadhera, 8 Hrithik Shokeen, 9 Arshad Khan, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Riley Meredith
Kolkata Knight Riders
Possible bowl-first XI: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk) 2 N Jagadeesan, 3 Nitish Rana (capt), 4 Andre Russell/David Wiese, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Shardul Thakur, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Lockie Ferguson, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Suyash Sharma.
Possible bat-first XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk) 2 N Jagadeesan, 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Nitish Rana (capt), 5 Andre Russell/David Wiese 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shardul Thakur, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Pitch and conditions
A dry pitch is expected with afternoon temperatures hovering in the early 30s C.Stats that matter
- Sunil Narine has bowled one over in powerplay in each match this season. Expect him to continue that trend considering he has dismissed Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma seven times in the IPL - the most by any bowler.
- Rohit is 44 runs adrift of becoming the fourth Indian batter to get 6000 runs in the IPL. He also needs to hit five more sixes to become the first Indian batter, and third overall, to record 250 sixes in the tournament.
Quotes
"We get great support here and we want to make this our fortress. We want to get good results here all the time and make it somewhere that we're confident about the style of cricket we're going to play and take on every team."
Tim David is hoping Mumbai can turn the Wankhede into a fortress.
Tim David is hoping Mumbai can turn the Wankhede into a fortress.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo