IPL 2020, PBKS vs KKR Preview: Punjab Kings strive to build winning momentum vs Kolkata Knight Riders

After an assurance-boosting victory against the Mumbai Indians, the Punjab Kings will commence their Ahmedabad leg of IPL 2021 versus the Kolkata Knight Riders at Narendra Modi Stadium.

Punjab Kings are coming on the back of a spirit-boosting nine-wicket win over Mumbai Indians. Kolkata Knight Riders, in the meantime, have persevered through an extreme beginning to their mission, losing four games on the jog subsequent to winning their opener.

This venue facilitated two Test matches among India and England this year, where the spinners ruled. In any case, the batsmen dominated the bowlers in the ensuing 5-match T20I series.

Head to Head

Across the 13 IPL seasons up until now, KKR has confronted Punjab Kings for 27 matches up until this point. Out of which KKR havearisen successful multiple times totally ruling Punjab Kings. The Punjab Kings have been able to win only 9 of them.

Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul played four matches at Narendra Modi Stadium during the England T20I series. The right-hand batsman grappled as he scored just 15 runs at a strike rate of 48.38.

KL Rahul's Punjab teammate Chris Jordan scalped four wickets for England in the five T20Is against India.

The Punjab Kings shouldn't go amiss much from their victorious blend. Jhye Richardson could return to the side instead of Fabian Allen, taking a gander at the conditions on offer. Else, they should handle an unaltered XI.

Probable XI: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Moises Henriques, Shahrukh Khan, Jhye Richardson/Riley Meredith, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Shubman Gill has three half-centuries in five innings against Punjab, having scored 209 runs at an average of 104.50 and the youngster would be keen to start off well.

If the top three can give a strong stage, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, and Dinesh Karthik have sufficient capability to assemble a high rise. However, for that to occur, the Knight Riders should guarantee the triplet face enough balls to have an effect.

Sunil Narine has bagged 28 wickets against Punjab. His 28 wickets have come at an average of 18.18 while he has an economy of 6.97 against Punjab Kings.

Probable XI: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi

It will be intriguing to see how different players of the two teams perform at this enigmatic venue, Punjab Kings, with their momentum, start as the top picks. They look more settled collectively, and if their top-order fires, they'll extravagant their odds of beating a striving Kolkata Knight Riders team.