Big Picture
Sunday begins with consistency meeting chaos in the afternoon game. Both teams have started IPL 2023 in the manner they ended IPL 2022 - Gujarat Titans winning two on the trot and Kolkata Knight Riders struggling one evening and buoyant the next.
The Titans have been a gun chasing side over the last two seasons and if they win the toss at home, they are likely to chase again. In both their wins, their batters and pacers were in great touch. Mohammad Shami, Alzarri Joseph and Josh Little provide pace, skid, bounce and swing between them, Rashid Khan is back to taking wickets regularly, Hardik Pandya has made confident moves as captain, Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill are in terrific nick, and David Miller has brought his excellent form from South Africa to India. They start as clear favourites with home advantage on offer too.
The Knight Riders will have to show that their 81-run victory on Thursday night was no fluke. Their three spinners have impressed but their Indian-heavy top order has crumbled in both games. A 103-run partnership between Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh bailed them out in their last match, but the lower order can't always come to the team's rescue, particularly against the Titans' robust attack.
Team news
Titans signed Sri Lanka white-ball captain Dasun Shanaka as Kane Williamson's replacement earlier in the week. He is supposed to arrive in India over the weekend, but there's no word yet on his availability.
Toss and Impact Player Strategy
If the Titans bat first, then the left-arm seamer Little could be the Impact Player at the innings break, with him replacing a batter like Sudharsan or Vijay Shankar. If the Titans bowl first, the opposite is likely to happen.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya (capt), 5 VIjay Shankar, 6 David Miller, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Mohammed Shami.
Probable bowl-first XI: 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya, 5 David Miller, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Alzarri Joseph, 9 Josh Little, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Mohammed Shami.
If the Knight Riders bat first and suffer a collapse that needs them to lengthen their batting, they could risk bringing in Anukul Roy as a lower-order hitter who can also bowl some left-arm spin. Otherwise, they will prefer to replace a pure batter like Mandeep Singh at the halfway stage for Suyash Sharma. Mandeep's own place in the XI is at risk with two poor returns and N Jagadeesan on the bench. If Knight Riders bowl first, Suyash is expected to exit for a batter at the end of his spell.
Probable bat-first XI: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Venkatesh Iyer, 3 Mandeep Singh/N Jagadeesan/Jason Roy, 4 Nitish Rana (capt), 5 Andre Russell, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Shardul Thakur, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Tim Southee/Lockie Ferguson/Vaibhav Arora, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Probable bowl-first XI: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Venkatesh Iyer, 3 Nitish Rana (capt), 4 Andre Russell, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Shardul Thakur, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Tim Southee/Lockie Ferguson/Vaibhav Arora, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Suyash Sharma.
Stats that matter
- With 96 runs in 40 balls, Russell has a strike-rate of 240 against Shami in T20s. But he struggles against Rashid: out four times in 38 balls with an average of only 13.50.
- Hardik has never been dismissed by Narine in six innings, scoring 56 runs with a strike-rate of 151.35.
- Rashid (533) and Narine (481) are the highest spin-bowling wicket-takers in T20 history.
- Since 2021, Miller has hit 59 sixes in the slog (last four) overs of T20s. Only Tim David (89) has hit more sixes than Miller in this phase.
Pitch and conditions
The Titans comfortably chased a target of 180 in the tournament opener in Ahmedabad, and a par score would be in that range given the big ground dimensions, which can convert mis-hits to dismissals in the deep. Ahmedabad has both red-soil and black-soil pitches, and the Titans may prefer playing on the red-soil pitch that typically provides less turn, against a spin-heavy Knight Riders attack. The weather is set to be hot and sunny.
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx
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