Depleted Royals look to overcome top-order troubles against Knight Riders
With both sides languishing in the bottom half of the points table, they can't afford another batting meltdown
Big picture
Team news
Likely XIs
Strategy punt
- The Knight Riders have opened their attack with spin in all their four games this season, but against the Royals, who have lost all their ten wickets in the powerplay to pace, there is a case for them to give the new ball to Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna.
- The Royals could consider replacing Mustafizur Rahman with Andrew Tye, the slower-ball specialist who can now bowl out-and-out pace as well. If the Knight Riders throw Sunil Narine into the opening mix, Tye could counter him with his excess pace and bounce. Even otherwise, Tye could be matched up with Rana, who like Narine, isn't comfortable against short balls at speeds north of 140kph. So, Jaydev Unadkat slotting in for Shreyas Gopal and Tye for Rahman could potentially give their seam attack a new dimension and prepare them for life in the absence of Archer.
Stats that matter
- The Knight Riders have won just one out of their nine IPL games at the Wankhede Stadium.
- Chris Morris has a fine head-to-head record against Russell in T20 cricket. He has got Russell three times in 23 balls while giving away 34 runs.
- Eoin Morgan has scored 243 runs in five innings against the Royals at an average of 81 and strike rate of 157.79 - his best record against an IPL side. Morgan is also 43 runs away from 7000 in T20 cricket.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo