IPL 2018: Kolkata Knight Riders' Likely Playing XI

Two-time champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, will face Royal Challengers Bangalore in their first game of the season at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on April 8.

The team has a new captain in the form of Dinesh Karthik and a revamped squad as well.

Though the team retained five players and bought Chris Lynn, there are a total of 13 new players on the roster.

There is no Gautam Gambhir, under whom the team won the IPL title twice.

No there is Suryakumar Yadav, the vice-captain of the team.

Dinesh Karthik,  who hasn’t led an IPL team on a consistent basis, has been given the charge to lead the team.

Uthappa was in the mix for captaincy, but he has been given the duty of vice-captain.

Since this will be the first time Karthik will perform the job of a full-time captain, one of the major decisions he will have to make is to pick a suitable playing XI.

One of the advantages that he has is that KKR has a small squad.

The franchise has 19 players, despite emptying their purse.

This will give Karthik an option to choose from a small sample.

The franchise has experienced players in the form of Uthappa, Narine, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc.

Youngsters like Nitish Rana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi are also a part of the team.

The latter three were part of the India U19 side.

Their prowess in junior cricket saw them going for a huge amount.

Rana, on the other hand, did well in last IPL and was purchased by the franchise for an amount of Rs 3.4 Crore in the auction.

The success of the KKR will heavily depend on the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla.

They have played together for this team and Uttar Pradesh as well.

The two are leg-spinners – a form of bowling which has seen much success in recent times.

It will be interesting to see the combination which Karthik will pick for the first game.

Will he go to Johnson or will prefer Starc? Will Karthik keep wickets or will Uthappa perform the duty?

Will he open with Narine or will Lynn open with Uthappa?

There are some questions that he will have to deal with despite having a small squad.

So let’s have a look at likely XI and try to find out what could be the best option for Kolkata Knight Riders –

Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (Captain, WK), Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Mitchell Starc, Kamlesh Nagarkoti.