The two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders will face off with the new-look Delhi Daredevils team in the second IPL match on Sunday.
Kolkata Knight Riders
The team led by the former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir. The KKR team has maintained its team for the past three years. So the players have had a good time together.
The team has a strong batting line-up backed by good bowling attack. The batting is led by Gambhir, Uthappa, Pandey, Pathan, Andre Russell and Shakib Al-Hasan.
The automatic choices for the four foreign players are Narine, Russell, Shakib and Morkel. Gambhir has several options like John Hastings, Colin Munro and Chris Lynn on the bench.
The bowling is led by the West Indian Sunil Narine. The team also has Umesh Yadav, John Hastings, Morne Morkel and Piyush Chawla.
The bench for KKR is quite strong with batters and bowlers to cover any emergency. Gambhir can experiment with the team as it is packed with all-rounders.
My KKR XI
Gambhir, Uthappa, Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Russell, Shakib, Suryakumar Yadav, Morne Morkel, Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla and Jaydev Unadkat.
Stat for thought
"Gautam Gambhir has seen both sides of today's teams ... and a bit more too #IPL2016 #KKRvDD"
Delhi Daredevils
The new-look Delhi Daredevils is led by the former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan. The team looks strong as it has mix of batters, fast bowlers, all-rounders and spinners.
But we have to wait and watch how they deliver as majority of players were picked from Rajasthan Royals. DD is coached by former RR coach Paddy Upton and mentored by the under-19 coach Rahul Dravid.
The batting is led by Quinton de Kock, Duminy, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson and the WT20 final hero Carlos Brathwaite.
The bowling is led by its captain Zaheer Khan, Imran Tahir, Mohammed Shami and Coulter-Nile.
Delhi Daredevils has the right balance to reach the top four.
Three of the four foreign players are automatic choices — Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and Carlos Brathwaite. According to the pitch conditions, Zaheer has to pick either Imran Tahir or Nathan Coulter-Nile. But Coulter-Nile can be a handy batsman lower down the order. So my choice will be Coulter-Nile as DD has Pawan Negi or Karun Nair and Amit Mishra as spinners. Duminy can be used as an extra spinner, if needed.
My DD playing XI
Quinton de Kock, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Mayank Agarwal, JP Duminy, Carlos Brathwaite, Zaheer Khan, Imran Tahir or Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pawan Negi or Karun Nair, Mohammed Shami and Amit Mishra.
