IPL 2018: Match preview of Kolkata vs Punjab

Kolkata take on Punjab at Eden Gardens. Dinesh Karthik-led Kolkata is currently emerging as one of the top contenders for the IPL 2018 title. With a massive bowling strength, Kolkata has proved its abilities in batting department as well.

After Gautam Gambhir's ouster, it was doubtful that whether Dinesh Karthik will be able to fill Gambhir shoes or not, after all, Kolkata won twice under Gautam Gambhir's leadership. But I must say, Dinesh Karthik, who scored last ball sixer to win the Nidahas trophy against Bangladesh, has given his 100 per cent as Kolkata's skipper.

On the other hand, team Punjab is nowhere less than Kolkata. From the day of the auction, till the last game played, they have shown an intent of becoming a champion.

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Players like KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal have given very important contributions to the team and also the middle order is quite settled Yuvraj Singh and Aaron Finch.

Let's not forget, even Kolkata also have a massive batting order of Kolkata, Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana and their star batsman, Andre Russell.

The clash is also very interesting as it will be a Russell vs Gayle match. Gayle hit an outstanding unbeaten century, which was also the first century of IPL 2018 and the other hand, Russell has played some splendid knock in the ongoing edition IPL.

Showers are expected at the Eden Gardens Stadium but let's hope it doesn't affect today's match.

Watch the preview here:

Playing XI (TBC)

Kolkata: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Tom Curran, Piyush Chawla, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav

Punjab: Lokesh Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Barinder Sran, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman