After five games, Kolkata Knight Riders have one win and look pretty much the most ordinary team in the league. Their batting, in particular, has looked rather shoddy and with the pressure mounting on them, expect a few panic changes and some desperation in catching up to the rest. It’s the first game in Ahmedabad, and the unknown nature of the wicket could also encourage KKR to try and bring in new players.

Punjab Kings aren’t too well off either, but they managed to take away a win from the Chennai leg and if the surfaces are as slow in Ahmedabad, expect them to be a force again. That said, they will be put under test if Pat Cummins and Andre Russell turn up with the ball.
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Head to head record

Overall: KKR 18 – 9 PBKS
Since 2018: KKR 4 – 2 PBKS

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PBKS KKR Dream11 Fantasy tips

• The trick is to understand why the likes of Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana are unreliable picks for this game and balance the XI to pick no more than three batters (because there aren’t more you can pick who add fantasy value!)
• Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle can be picked, although Gayle is a suspect pick because of the presence of Cummins and Russell, both quicks who can trouble him with the extra yard of pace he isn’t comfortable with now.
• KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran can be picked especially as Pooran is likely to get a promotion in the batting order to try and make an impact. It might well be one of his last chances for now if he cannot make an impact with Dawid Malan waiting.
• Pat Cummins, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy pick themselves from the KKR line-up, but that’s about all you need. The remaining one pick can be Rahul Tripathi or Shivam Mavi based on what combination you have.
• Ahmedabad is likely to encourage turn and Ravi Bishnoi is a good pick for the venue even though KKR have less of lefties he is more impactful against.
• Deepak Hooda and Mohammed Shami should also be in your XI, the latter in particular as he matches up well against the KKR top and middle-order and could also get wickets in the death. Shami is a decent captaincy choice too for this game.

Probable XI for PBKS v KKR

PBKS: KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan/Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Moises Henriques, Shahrukh Khan, Fabian Allen, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh

KKR: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi

Rewind: IPL 2020 matches between PBKS & KKR

Game 1: KKR win

Game 2: PBKS win

PBKS KKR Dream 11 Team

Potential swaps

Ferguson (if he plays) for pretty much anyone
Arshdeep for Hooda
Rana for Tripathi

Captaincy options in order

Rahul, Shami, Russell, Chakravarthy, Bishnoi, Mayank