(Cricket news) Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders begin their IPL 2023 journey as last season both of their teams had some similarities. After a disappointing previous season under Anil Kumble and Mayank Agarwal’s captaincy, PBKS have subsequently appointed both a new captain and coach in Shikhar Dhawan and Trevor Bayliss. For KKR, Nitish Rana and Chandrakant Pandit will lead KKR although their leadership change was forced upon them because of Shreyas Iyer’s injury.

Both the squads are missing key players as Pbks are without Jonny Bairstow for the entire season and will not have Liam Livingstone and Kagiso Rabada for the first game. While KKR are without Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das, who will join the squad after 9th April. This season the Punjab will be hoping for some joy as they have not made the playoffs since 2014, but this season they have bought Sam Curran with a record-breaking bid at the auction. KKR on the other hand, had the smallest purse going into the auction, after spending a lot of money in the trade window in order to bring in Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson and Gurbaz.

For PBKS they have released their ex captain Mayank Agarwal, as they will likely open with a new opener which is mostly going to be one of Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa or the new player in Matthew Short, alongside Dhawan. Nathan Ellis will take the overseas fast bowler’s spot in Kagiso Rabada’s absence, while Curran and Arshdeep Singh are likely going to form a formidable death-overs combination. With Livingstone missing, Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza could take his place and create history by becoming the first Zimbabwean to play in the IPL..

KKR might open with either Rahmanullah Gurbaz or N Jagadeesan. The Tamil Nadu batter is fresh after his record for the highest List-A score as either one of them can double up as a wicketkeeper too. Lockie Ferguson has recovered well from a hamstring injury and could start ahead of Tim Southee as the overseas seamer, while Venkatesh Iyer who makes a comeback after a long injury should secure his place not as a opener but mostly as a middle order batter in order to fill that massive gap left by Shreyas Iyer. It is going to be a toss up between Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma, another mystery spinner, for a place in the playing XI.

Punjab Kings

Possible bat-first XI: 1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 Prabhsimran Singh, 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 4 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Rishi Dhawan, 9 Harpreet Brar, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

If Punjab bat first, they could pick only three overseas players and bring in Ellis as the Impact Player in place of Rajapaksa in the second innings. If they end up needing an extra batter in the first innings, they could bring in Raj Bawa for having six bowling options.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Possible bat-first XI: 1 N Jagadeesan, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Nitish Rana (capt), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Shardul Thakur 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun Chakravarthy/ Suyash Sharma.

KKR could play with three overseas players if they bowl first as they could bring in either Gurbaz or David Wiese as the Impact Player in the second innings. They could consider bringing in David Wiese in the first innings as well, if they want an extra bowling option while Ankul Roy is also an option.

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