Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings are scheduled to face each other in the 53rd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday. It is an extremely crucial game for the Nitish Rana-led side as a loss will more or less end their hopes of making it to the playoffs. Even though Punjab Kings have a little bit of a breathing space, a loss will also bring them into the must-win situation to make it to the top four in the points table.
Ahead of the encounter, KKR have been boosted with a great news as their premier pace bowler Umesh Yadav is fit and available to play. He hasn't played since April 26 game against RCB due to hamstring injury but according to ESPNCricinfo, the pace bowler has recovered and is available for selection. However, it remains unclear if he will get a chance in the playing XI. Two other bowlers Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora played in his absence and it remains to be seen Umesh slots straight back into the playing XI.
Meanwhile, after playing as a pure batter against GT, Shardul Thakur hit the strides with the ball in the previous game against SRH. He sent down three overs for just 23 runs and also picked up two key wickets. Umesh and Shardul returning to full fitness is a great news for the Indian team as well as both the players are picked in the squad for the WTC Final against Australia set to be played next month.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anukul Roy, Suyash Sharma, N Jagadeesan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Mandeep Singh, Tim Southee, David Wiese, Umesh Yadav, Aarya Desai
Punjab Kings Squad: Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Matthew Short, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sikandar Raza, Atharva Taide, Mohit Rathee, Shivam Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Baltej Singh, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Gurnoor Brar
