Royals (RR) and Knight Riders (KKR) both have seen hot and cold in the UAE so far. And the two former champions will be keen on bringing their Middle East campaign to a happy ending by making sure that they remain in the top-half when IPL-7 returns to India over the weekend.
Kolkata is struggling in their batting department with Gambhir having been dismissed for a duck three times in the four matches he has led the team so far. He scored just one in Kolkata's last match against leaders Kings XI Punjab, which KKR lost by 23 runs.
The bowling of the Knight Riders has been the saving grace for them right throughout the tournament. They managed to halt the unstoppable force of Maxwell and Co. in the last game and have more than enough venom to deal with the batting line up Rajasthan Royals.
On the other hand, The Royals has managed to find a very balanced side, something that not every team in the tournament can boast of. They have managed to stopped RCB to 70 while has also managed to scored 193 in one of the games. The balance of the team will play the X factor role for them.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Piyush Chawla, Pat Cummins, Debabrata Das, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Sayan Mondal, Veer Pratap Singh, Andre Russell, Ryan ten Doeschate, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav.
Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson (captain), Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Kane Richardson, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Tim Southee, Pravin Tambe, Ankit Sharma, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Stuart Binny, Unmukt Chand, Kevon Cooper, Ben Cutting, James Faulkner, Brad Hodge, Deepak Hooda, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Vikramjeet Malik, Karun Nair, Rahul Tewatia, Dishant Yagnik.
Cricketnmore/ Lal Prateek Vikram Singh