David Warner has won the toss against Kolkata Knight Riders and in a change from every other captain’s call this IPL 2020, the Sunrisers will be batting first in Abu Dhabi.
The Hyderabad franchise have made 3 changes to their playing XI with Mohammad Nabi coming in for the injured Mitch Marsh who has been ruled out of the tournament. Vijay Shankar has a niggle on his back and makes way for Saha while Khaleel Ahmed is playing in place of Sandeep Sharma.
Dinesh Karthik says they have made two changes with Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Varun CV replacing Sandeep Warrier and Nikhil Naik respectively.
Both teams have played just one match this IPL 2020 but been on the wrong side of the result.
Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Pat Cummins, 8 Varun CV, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Shivam Mavi, 11 Kamlesh Nagarkoti
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 2 David Warner (capt), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Priyam Garg, 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Wriddhiman Saha, 7 Abhishek Sharma, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 T Natarajan
Match Starts 7:30pm IST
Kolkata lost their opening fixture of the tournament to defending champions Mumbai Indians while David Warner’s Sunrisers went down to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
With the likes of Andre Russell and Eoin Morgan in their middle-order, KKR have the capability to overhaul any given target. However, the duo failed to capitalise against Mumbai and the Dinesh Karthik-led KKR ended up on the losing side.
The focus will be on KKR’s Aussie bowler Pat Cummins who was was snapped by the franchise for a whopping Rs.15.5 crore for this edition. However, the Aussie quick failed to prove his worth after being hammered for 49 runs from his three overs.
On the other hand, SRH's middle-order instability was exposed in their opening match against RCB. Opener David Warner, too, had a flop show with the willow and it was his partner Jonny Bairstow, who showed resistance in the middle with his 43-ball 61.
The team took a big hit during the opener with their all-rounder Mitchell Marsh injuring his ankle. The 28-year-old has since been ruled out of the remaining part of the tournament and replaced by Jason Holder who has arrived in the UAE but will now go into a 6-day compulsory quarantine.
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