In their previous match, Delhi went down to the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 15 runs in a high-scoring encounter. Chasing 223, they finished on 207 for 8, in a game that was overshadowed by the no-ball controversy. The bowling went for plenty, but there wouldn’t be too many concerns because Kuldeep Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman and Khaleel Ahmed have done well in the previous matches.
The batting though is a big issue. They are heavily dependent on openers Prithvi Shaw and David Warner to do the bulk of the scoring. Skipper Rishabh Pant has got starts, but has not converted those. Sarfaraz Khan, Lalit Yadav and Rovman Powell will need to score.
DC predicted XI: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Rovman Powell, Sarfaraz Khan, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman, Khaleel Ahmed
Kolkata’s campaign seems to be going from bad to worse. They needed to chase only 157 for victory against the Gujarat Titans (GT). However, they stumbled to 148 for 8, going down by eight runs. With Aaron Finch unavailable, they opened with Sam Billings and Sunil Narine in the last game, but both fell cheaply.
Shreyas Iyer has had a couple of good games, but hasn’t been as consistent as expected. Nitish Rana has struggled and so has Venkatesh Iyer, even after being pushed down the order. Expect a few changes in the batting order. KKR could go back to Ajinkya Rahane at the top, leaving out both Venkatesh and Finch.
KKR predicted XI: Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings (wk), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
Top fantasy picks for DC vs KKR clash: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Kuldeep Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell, Tim Southee
–Renin Wilben Albert
