KKR are in the middle table with three wins and three losses while Royals have won three matches and lost two games so far.
KKR are in the middle table with three wins and three losses while Royals have won three matches and lost two games so far.
With their confidence badly shaken after two consecutive defeats, last edition’s runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders will look to get their inconsistent campaign back on track when they face Rajasthan Royals in an IPL match in Mumbai on Monday.
KKR were defeated by Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad by 44 runs and seven wickets respectively in their last two matches. They had earlier lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
KKR are in the middle table with three wins and three losses while Royals have won three matches and lost two games so far.
KKR had an impressive start in the league with three wins from four matches, but consecutive defeats took them down the top-4 and they would like to regain that spot.
But to do so, he has to pull himself up both in batting and bowling. Barring Andre Russell, none of the batsmen have been consistent so far, while spinner Varun Chakraborty and pacer Pat Cummins have averaged performances.
Russell is the current top scorer for KKR with 179 runs in six matches and has also conceded five wickets with the ball.
Captain Shreyas Lair has not been in the best of form with just one half-century for a total of 151 runs in six matches, Nitesh Rana and Venkatesh Iyer lack consistency while Sam Billings is struggling to score runs.
In the bowling department, except fast bowler Umesh Yadav (10 wickets in 6 matches), none have lived up to the expectations.
KKR’s highest wicket-taker last season, Chakraborty is struggling with just four wickets in six matches.
Chakraborty’s senior spin colleague Sunil Narine is also in the same boat, with just four wickets.
Australia’s Test captain Cummins, who joined late due to a national commitment, also needs to step up and outperform his current figures of three wickets in as many matches.
Royals, on the other hand, will start as the favorites in Monday’s match with the highest run-scorer and wicket-taker of the tournament in their ranks in Jos Buttler and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Chahal is in top form with 12 wickets from five matches, along with a good economy of 6.80 and he is looking to add more scale to his name, especially against the KKR batting unit.
Veteran New Zealand pacer Trent Boult (7 wickets from 4 matches) is the other Royals bowler who has been doing well.
But India’s senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is badly out of form. He picked up just one wicket for 143 runs in five matches and it remains to be seen how long the team management sticks with him.
However, the Royals have so far failed to click as a batting unit with the likes of skipper Sanju Samson (117 from 5 matches) and the extremely talented Devdutt Padikkal (114 from 5 matches).
His batting mainly revolves around Butler, who has set the IPL on fire by scoring 272 runs in five matches with one century and two fifties.
Shimron Hetmyer has been the only Royals batsman to have scored 197 runs in five matches with the help of a half-century.
faction:
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (capt/wk), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pranam Krishna, Riyan Parag, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Devdutt Padikkal, Navdeep Saini, Karun Nair, Rassi van der Dussen, James Neesham Anunay Singh, Daryl Mitchell, Dhruv Jurel, Shubham Garhwal, Kuldeep Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Obed McCoy, Tejas Baroka, KC Cariappa.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), Aaron Finch, Abhijit Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Inderjit, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakraborty, Aman Khan , Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammad Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
The match will start at 7:30 pm.