The third match of Indian Premier League 2024 will see Kolkata Knight Riders hosting Sunrisers Hyderabad at the hallowed Eden Gardens on Saturday, March 23. Things are set to heat up as Australia teammates Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins turn rivals. Starc had upstaged his national team skipper at the mini auction to emerge as the most expensive player in IPL history (INR 24.75 crore). SRH captain Cummins (signed for INR 20.5 crore) will be eager to show who's boss, come match hour. (Preview | Full Coverage)
The game will also mark the return of Shreyas Iyer as KKR skipper. Iyer had not played IPL 2023 and there were concerns regarding his fitness ahead of this season as well. But the Mumbai batter took part in KKR's intra-squad practice game and is deemed fit to play on Saturday.
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Let's take a look at three key player battles from the KKR vs SRH match on Saturday evening that could be worth your while.
Shreyas Iyer Vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar
The battle of two currently out-of-favour India cricketers promises to be an exciting one. Iyer has not been in action recently and could be rusty in his first game upon return. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will look to exploit that and use his extravagantly swinging deliveries to force an edge or caught behind early doors.
Andre Russell Vs Mayank Markande
The big-hitting Andre Russell can be a nightmare for any bowling team when on song. The West Indian can hit sixes almost at will when in good nick, and will aim to light up the Eden Gardens with his monster maximums. He could face a stiff challenge from 26-year-old Indian leg-spinner Mayank Markande, who has a history of doing well in the IPL.
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Heinrich Klaasen Vs Varun Chakravarthy
South African wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen is one of the most dangerous ball strikers going around in world cricket. The 32-year-old has taken just 7.3 balls per six hit in the last 12 months and will his fancy his chances against the KKR attack. The mystery spin of Varun Chakravarthy, however, might not be an easy proposition. The Tamil Nadu bowler will deploy his bag of tricks and try his best to stop Klaasen's onslaught.
Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana (vc), Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Sakib Hussain, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Angkrish, Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, KS Bharat, Phil Salt, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Dushmantha Chameera, Varun Chakravarthy, Mitchell Starc, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Harshit Rana and Suyash Sharma.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.
