Steve Smith's Rajasthan Royals who are unbeaten in the tournament so far has decided to bowl first in their third match against two time champions Kolkata Knight Riders.Royals were pegged to be the underdogs against MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings. What followed was an easy win for the Royals and a ton of debate on Dhoni’s batting position and captaincy. In the next game, the Steve Smith’s side looked completely shattered by Kings XI Punjab’s batting line-up. But then Sanju Samson and Rahul Tewatia emerged as heroes for the franchise to pick up a record-breaking win.
Both Royals and Knights have gone in with the unchanged XI and the head-to-head record between KKR and Royals is tied at 10-10. Kolkata Knight Riders have got big hitters in their team like Andre Russell and Eoin Morgan, and they have to unleash firepower against the likes of struggling Jaydev Unadkat and Ankit Rajpoot. In the batting department, Jos Buttler hold the key along with Sanju Samson. Jos Buttler’s record as an opener for Rajasthan Royals is tremendous. He has played 15 game so far, and has scored 743 runs in which he has scored 8 fifies at an average of 57.2. So far, teams batting first have had a perfect win record at Dubai this season.
Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Jos Buttler(w), Steven Smith(c), Sanju Samson, Rahul Tewatia, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Jaydev Unadkat
