Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders: It's Royal's best spin hitters versus Kolkata's spinners

Both teams had an excellent start to the season, but Kolkata soon started slipping down to the middle of the table.

Kolkata Knight Riders, who started the league with a bang, have been struggling lately. While the T20 format is believed to be ruled by the batters, it is one or two overs of excellent or bad bowling that changes the game's result. And this is where KKR has been losing the plot. Despite having the likes of Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy, they are unable to control the flow of runs from the opposition. In tonight's clash with Rajasthan, they will need to think of a way out because the pink team likes to go big against spinners. Their batting looks much more consistent with the presence of power hitters and depth, thus will be looking forward to continuing the same in the batting department. 

On the other hand, Rajasthan Royal has lost two of the five matches played so far. And the team looks relatively stable in all aspects, be it batting or bowling. Jos Buttler has been leading the team right from the opening to the end. Shimron Hetmyer has been decent with his finishing role whenever needed. Their bowling unit is one of the strongest of all teams, Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna's pace combined with Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin's spin. The team will be expecting the return of their pacer, Trent Boult, who missed out last match and his absence was felt by the team.

Pitch Report

The pitch at Brabourne Stadium offers equivalent aid to batters and bowlers. Pacers are more likely to find wickets with the help of bounce provided by the pitch. The team winning toss might bowl first.

Probable Playing XI

Rajasthan Royals: Devdutt Padikkal, Jos Buttler, Rassie van der Dussen, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shimron Hetmyer, Trent Boult/James Neesham, Riyan Parag, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal

Kolkata Knight Riders: Venkatesh Iyer, Aaron Finch, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (c), Sheldon Jackson (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Aman Hakim Khan, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy

Stats to keep an eye on

• The two teams have played 24 matches against each other in IPL history. Kolkata Knight Riders look to have a slight edge with 13 wins, whereas Rajasthan Royals have 11 with them.
• The Brabourne Stadium has been the quickest-scoring venue of IPL 2022, with seven matches at the ground producing an overall run rate of 9.43.
• Sanju Samson is 49 runs away from reaching 5000 in T20 cricket.
• Shimron Hetmyer (262.00) has the best strike rate of any batter who has faced at least 20 balls in this phase this season, while Andre Russell (196.55) isn't too far behind.

Comparing the teams' strengths on paper, Rajasthan Royals look to be in better condition and favourites to win tonight's clash. It will be interesting to see if two-time champions can have an escape from a hat-trick of defeats this season.