Ajinkya Rahane marked match number 200 in the IPL by winning the toss and, almost by reflex now, deciding Kolkata Knight Riders will bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It is the sixth fixture this season in which the captain calling correctly has chosen to chase; the side batting second has taken all five games to date.
Rahane reckons the surface – pitch No. 5 at Eden Gardens – “will stay good throughout”, so KKR are unchanged. The strip is the same black-soil deck on which Finn Allen thumped a 33-ball hundred in last year’s T20 World Cup semi-final. Square boundaries measure 61 and 68 metres, the straight hit is 74, so another high-scoring evening feels more likely than not.
Sunrisers would have chased too, but they settle for first use of the bat and the debut of 22-year-old left-arm wrist-spinner Shivang Kumar. The youngster replaces no-one in the starting XI just yet; Hyderabad will decide during the innings break which of Harshal Patel or Eshan Malinga – both listed among the five Impact options – makes way if they need Kumar’s overs in the second half.
Both teams are still looking for a first win despite each topping 200 in their opening fixture. Knight Riders’ batting order again features Sunil Narine at the top, Cameron Green in the middle, and Rinku Singh holding the finisher’s brief. Vaibhav Arora keeps the new ball, with Blessing Muzarabani and Kartik Tyagi to follow.
Hyderabad lean on the left-hand power of Abhishek Sharma and the cutting edge of Travis Head, before Ishan Kishan, back behind the stumps, and Heinrich Klaasen give the middle order heft. England seamer David Payne and veteran Jaydev Unadkat share the pace duties.
Playing XIs
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Blessing Muzarabani, Kartik Tyagi.
Impact options: Manish Pandey, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Saurabh Dubey, Rovman Powell.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (capt, wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, David Payne, Jaydev Unadkat.
Impact options: Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga, Liam Livingstone, R Smaran, Sakib Hussain.
Key points to watch
• Six matches, six toss-winning skippers choosing to bowl. Does the run continue?
• Shivang Kumar’s first taste of the league – left-arm wrist-spin is still a rare craft; curiosity alone makes him box-office in analyst terms.
• KKR’s unchanged XI suggests faith, but also pressure: they conceded 208 last time out.
• Eden’s black soil tends to hold together, yet dew can turn it into a batting track under lights – hence Rahane’s preference.
Small margins, as ever in a format this unforgiving, will decide whether one of these sides finally gets on the board.
