Sunday’s clash at Eden Gardens would have been an ideal opportunity for Kolkata Knight Riders to double the pressure on Rajasthan Royals. Particularly, after the thrashing the Royals got from Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous game.
But it’s the Knight Riders who will be under serious pressure going into the contest against Riyan Parag and his teammates. The Knights are still winless after as many as six games this edition, while their playoffs prospects are thinning with every defeat.
To compound KKR’s problems, the Royals have players who are quite capable of exploiting the current situation and rub it further on the already-battered Knights. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, suffering a first-ball dismissal against SRH, must be itching for a quick return to rhythm and make it big in what’s set to be his second appearance at the Eden.
The 15-year-old left-hander could manage only 4 last year here, before falling to Vaibhav Arora. But KKR’s Vaibhav, just like the rest of his bowling mates, is having a tougher campaign in this IPL. So, even though well-directed short-pitched deliveries and hard lengths on the off-stump have been found to create problems for the explosive Sooryavanshi, will the KKR quicks be able to deliver no-nonsense stuff on Sunday?
Their current performances don’t inspire enough confidence. Besides, a fresh wicket is set to be in use for Sunday’s game. Having a little bit of grass on it, the pitch looks quite good for stroke-making, which also means the margin of error for bowlers could be minimal.
To keep Sooryavanshi and the other Royals batters at bay, the onus will again be on Varun Chakravarthy, who regained some form against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Friday, and Sunil Narine.
Enormous pressure will also be on captain Ajinkya Rahane, who’s also going through a tough phase with the bat. If Rahane fails on Sunday as well and KKR lose, it won’t be surprising if the franchise takes a drastic call before their next match, an away tie against Lucknow Super Giants on April 26.
Pathirana call
Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana joined the squad late on Saturday night. But taking the call of drafting him into the XI straightaway without a proper practice session could be risky, more so as the slinger is injury-prone. It hasn’t been many days since he has recovered fully from
his calf injury.