Punjab Kings (PBKS) will square off against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium for their first game of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Mohali on Saturday.
KKR will be heading into this campaign under the leadership of their new skipper Nitish Rana. The two-time IPL champions are dealing with the absence of their regular captain Shreyas Iyer, who is nursing a back injury currently.
Like KKR, PBKS too have a new captain at the helm. After the team offloaded Mayank Agarwal ahead of the 2023 IPL mini-auction, veteran batsman Shikhar Dhawan was promoted as the team's captain.
Punjab too begins its campaign with a few injury concerns. The team will be missing their star Englishman Jonny Bairstow as he is set to miss the season due to an injury. Bairstow's countryman, the middle-order powerhouse Liam Livingstone is set to be side-lined due to a fitness concern for the first few games as well.
They will be hoping for their overseas all-rounder duo of Sikandar Raza and Sam Curran to deliver comprehensively in all departments until Livingstone returns to the setup.
But all eyes will be on Curran as he returns to Punjab's fold after becoming the league's most expensive player ever.
Also Read:
IPL 2023 Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings Predicted Playing XI
PBKS: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, , Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Sikandar Raza, Sam Curran, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Chahar.
KKR: N Jagadeesan (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy.
Key Player To Watch Out
Shikhar Dhawan (PBKS)
Shikhar Dhawan scored 460 runs in 14 games at an average of 38.33 last season. He will assume greater batting responsibility in the absence of Bairstow and Livingstone and will be expected to carry the mantle of a rather inexperienced middle-order.
The track at the PCA Stadium is such that it will benefit flawless stroke players like Dhawan and he can enable Punjab to get a good score on the board if he gathers some momentum and gets going in the powerplay.
Andre Russell (KKR)
The Caribbean all-rounder will be the glue holding the KKR batting order together. He can both anchor the innings and bring in the finishing touch as and when required. Similarly, he can bowl at a good pace at all phases of the innings and Rana can pick his brains for leadership at crucial junctures of the game as well. KKR are cutting a depleted look in Iyer’s absence and Russell will have to shoulder more control over the batting unit in that case.
Pitch Report
The average first innings batting score at the PCA Stadium is 168 runs, which suggests that a fairly high-scoring encounter is on the table on Saturday.
Where to Watch LIVE:
The match will start at 3:30 PM IST and it will be telecast live on the Star Sports network. Online viewers can also tune into the action via the Jio Cinema app.
First Published: Apr 1, 2023 10:39 AM IST
