(Cricket news) LSG are currently third in the standings with 15 points as a win against Kolkata Knight Riders would mean direct qualification and chance to even secure a top-two finish. But if they lose, they will have to rely on the likes of RCB or MI losing. LSG are coming off back-to-back wins after just one win in four matches before that. Marcus Stoinis has been in exceptional form this season and led his side in both those wins, while there have been notable contributions from Krunal Pandya and leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi

For KKR, there’s only a small chance of them qualifying into the playoffs. Their negative net run-rate was made worse when they lost by a big margin against Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings at home. They need a victory by over 100 runs but need a number of other results to go their way.

Their win over CSK in Chennai was a rare occasion when both bat and ball clicked at the same time as they hope it would be a repeat performance. KKR will take a lot of positives even if they don’t qualify as they were dealt with multiple injuries especially to their captain Shreyas Iyer. The Likes of Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer have made their Indian batting core stronger for next season.

KKR:
Umesh Yadav is not 100 percent fit and KKR will risk playing him especially with the World Test Championship final starting in June. KKR have been the most consistent team using the Impact player as Venkatesh Iyer and Suyash Sharma substitute each other, depending on whether they bat first or bowl first.

Kolkata Knight Riders (probable XII): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Nitish Rana (capt), 5 Andre Russell, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shardul Thakur, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Varun Chakravarthy, 12 Suyash Sharma

LSG
LSG could substitute Prerak Mankad or Ayush Badoni for Yash Thakur or Amit Mishra, depending on how the pitch behaves. While Jaydev Unadkat has been ruled out of the of the IPL due to shoulder injury and young batter Suryansh Shedge has been named his replacement.

Lucknow Super Giants (probable XII): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Deepak Hooda, 3 Prerak Mankad, 4 Krunal Pandya (capt), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Nicholas Pooran, 7 Ayush Badoni, 8 Naveen-ul-Haq, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10, Swapnil Singh, 11 Mohsin Khan, 12 Yash Thakur/Amit Mishra

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