Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted XI vs Gujarat Titans, IPL 2023: Will Shardul Thakur Make His Way Back? | Cricket News

Kolkata Knight Riders will be squaring off against Gujarat Titans in their next IPL 2023 match on Saturday at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The two teams had earlier met each other in a historic clash, where Rinku Singh smashed five sixes in an over to help KKR chase down the massive target of 205. KKR will be coming to this clash after thrashing Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 runs. Their all-rounder Shardul Thakur, who has been giving good performances this season, had to miss out couple of matches due to a niggle but is likely to play against GT. There are chances that he might replace pacer Vaibhav Arora in the Playing XI.

In a season their Caribbean star duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are yet to fire, the low-profile KKR side without their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer may just have found a trump card in Jason Roy.

The Englishman set the tempo with a fiery half-century for the likes of Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh and David Wiese to capitalise and set a winning total of 201 against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Included only in their sixth match of the season, Roy has scores of 43, 61 and 56 in three matches and KKR’s batting will once again centre around him.

The win lifted KKR to seventh in the 10-team standings but they still have a long way to go to make the playoffs.

Varun Chakravarthy and rookie legspinner Suyash Sharma, who formed a winning combination against RCB, have been sharing the spin workload with veteran Narine going wicketless in five matches.

KKR’s Predicted XI against GT:N Jagadeesan (wk), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

(With PTI Inputs)