It’s yet another double header in the Indian Premier League on Sunday and the afternoon game puts Gujarat Titans up against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. While the defending champions have seemingly started off from where they left in IPL 2022, Kolkata have had a bitter-sweet start to the season, losing one and winning the other.

GT have had a tremendous record in run-chases and in case they win the toss, they are likely to choose to chase yet again. In both their wins so far, their batters and pace-bowling attack have stepped up big time while Rashid Khan has been the spearhead in the spin department while also being a capable hitter of the cricket ball lower down the order. There is little doubt that Gujarat will start as favourites in this game against Kolkata who still have a lot of issues to resolve despite that win over Bangalore.

KKR’s top-order has kind of crumbled in both games barring Rahmanullah Gurbaz. They can’t depend on Shardul Thakur’s batting in every match to bail them out and thus more runs are required from their domestic talents. Andre Russell too departed without scoring in the previous match and the focus will be on him other than their spinners who were the reason behind the team’s success at the Eden Garends in their previous match.

Gujarat did sign Dasun Shanaka as Kane Williamson’s replacement but whether he will be available for this match is not yet known. For KKR, Jason Roy could provide a strong boost to their batting order but there is no final confirmation on Lockie Ferguson’s fitness status.

Probable Playing XIs:

Gujarat: Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya (captain), VIjay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Mohammed Shami

Kolkata: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Venkatesh Iyer/Jason Roy, Nitish Rana (captain), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee/Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.