IPL 2021, Match 5: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians (KKR vs MI) – KKR Predicted Playing XI

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are ready for their second game of the IPL 2021 where they will face the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk, Chennai) this Tuesday (13th April) evening.

KKR played their first match of the IPL 2021 against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), where the Kolkata franchise won that match by 10 runs and opened their points account very early.

IPL 2021, Match 5: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians (KKR vs MI) – KKR Predicted Playing XI

Nitish Rana

After performing strongly in recent domestic cricket, Nitish Rana has maintained his good form in KKR’s season opener in the IPL 2021 where he scored 80 off 56 balls. His strong performance helped the two IPL champions to start the new season with a victory as he also won the Player of the Match award. Team management wishes similar strong performance from him throughout this year.

Shubman Gill

Another opener Shubman Gill, who was the leading run-scorer for KKR in the IPL 2020, scored 15 runs in their IPL 2021 opener but he had a useful opening partnership of 53 runs in the first seven overs. Despite that not strong enough knock, Gill was praised by the experts for his brilliant no-look six to T Natarajan.

Rahul Tripathi

In KKR’s first match of the IPL 2021, Rahul Tripathi came to bat in the third position, where he set up the strong 93 runs partnership for the second wicket with Nitis Rana. Tripathi scored 53 off 29 balls with the help of 5 fours and 2 sixes. His batting helped the KKR to dream for a big total.

Eoin Morgan (C)

Captain Eoin Morgan hasn’t recently batted much which can affect his confidence with the bat. During KKR’s IPL 2021 opener, Morgan came to bat in the 17th over and scored only 2 runs before losing his wicket. As Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik have in the squad, Morgan should come to bat at the upper.

Dinesh Karthik (wk)

Wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik, who was also the former KKR captain, was in good touch in domestic cricket, especially in the T20 format, and he maintained that in the third match of the IPL 2021 where he scored 22 not out off just 9 balls. His batting massively helped KKR to cross the 185 runs mark which was ultimately proved as the winning total.

Andre Russell

All-rounder Andre Russell‘s form is very crucial for KKR. After huge struggling in the IPL 2020, Russell disappointed with the bat in their first game of the IPL 2021 where he scored just 5 runs after coming to bat in the fourth position. Later, he had bowling figures of 3-0-32-1, where he dismissed Vijay Shankar (11).

Shakib Al Hasan

During their previous game, Bangladesh star Shakib Al Hasan made his return for the KKR almost four years later (3 years and 355 days). Coming to bat in the very late moment, Shakib scored just three runs before getting out on the final ball of the first innings. Later, he bowled Wriddhiman Saha (7) on his very first ball of that game but ultimately finished with bowling figures of 4-0-34-1.

Harbhajan Singh

KKR utilised the legendary Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh in their very first match of the IPL 2021 which was also his first professional game since the IPL 2019 final. In his latest match, Harbhajan delivered the first over of oppositions innings where he had bowling figures of 1-0-8-0, but he didn’t get his second over in that game.

Pat Cummins

Australian pacer Pat Cummins had bowling figures of 4-0-30-1, but he got the most crucial wicket in that innings as he dismissed the dangerous-looking Jonny Bairstow, who scored 55 off 40 balls. Definitely, KKR will be dependent on him in this IPL 2021.

Varun Chakravarthy

The last game was the leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s first game since their finishing journey of the IPL 2020. While Chakravarthy was introduced in the late moment of their IPL 2021 opener, the spinner had bowling figures of 4-0-36-0.

Prasidh Krishna

The right-arm pacer Prasidh Krishna has maintained his recent form in the Indian ODI side as he had bowling figures of 4-0-35-2 against SunRisers Hyderabad during KKR’s first game of the IPL 2021. After picking up the wicket of dangerous SRH opening batsman and captain David Warner (3) cheaply, Krishna also dismissed Mohammad Nabi for 14 runs.