The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won’t need to have a tough conversation about Cameron Green. The Australian all-rounder has been granted permission to bowl starting from the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) match on April 11. This should allow KKR to have more flexibility.
Sunil Narine to play
However, there’s some concern about Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy. The KKR spin duo didn’t feature in the rain-affected match against the Punjab Kings on April 6. Narine was down with illness. KKR has confirmed that he’s feeling much better now and has trained twice since. It’s safe to assume he’ll take the field against LSG.
“Sunil had fallen ill on the morning of our match vs PBKS, because of which he wasn’t a part of the XI. He has since been feeling better and trained with the team both yesterday and today – batted and bowled,” KKR said on April 8.
Doubt over Varun Chakaravarthy
Meanwhile, Chakaravarthy was out with injury. However, some were sceptical, stating that Chakaravarthy was dropped since he was out of form. Assuming the spinner was indeed injured, as KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane said, one can expect Navdeep Saini to take his spot. It happened in the last game as well.
However, if he’s fit, KKR should back him. His form rut has lasted over a month now, but he was the world’s best spinner until then and has a proven record for KKR. The franchise has confirmed that the medical team is looking after him and ensuring he’s fit for the LSG match,
“Varun had injured the little finger on his left hand while taking Abhishek’s catch in the match vs SRH. The medical team has been working closely with him. He bowled his full set at training today,” KKR further added.
Predicted KKR Playing XI vs LSG
| S. No. | Player | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajinkya Rahane (c) | Opener |
| 2 | Finn Allen✈️ | Opener |
| 3 | Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk) | Top-order batter |
| 4 | Cameron Green✈️ | All-rounder |
| 5 | Rinku Singh (vc) | Middle-order batter |
| 6 | Anukul Roy | All-rounder |
| 7 | Ramandeep Singh | Batting all-rounder |
| 8 | Sunil Narine✈️ | Mystery Spinner |
| 9 | Vaibhav Arora | Right-arm fast bowler |
| 10 | Kartik Tyagi | Right-arm fast bowler |
| 11 | Navdeep Saini | Right-arm fast bowler |
| Impact Player | Rovman Powell✈️/ Blessing Muzarabani✈️/ Varun Chakaravarthy/ Umran Malik/ Saurab Dubey |
Recently, former KKR captain Sourav Ganguly had expressed concern over the 34-year-old’s performance. He and many others believe that batters have started to pick the mystery spinner, something which wasn’t happening until a couple of months ago.
“Varun is going through an off-form period, and the problem is that the batters are now able to pick Varun, as they know which delivery he would bowl. That’s a matter of concern,” Ganguly told Sportstar.
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