Published: Apr 07, 2017, 07:00 PM (IST)
Edited: May 04, 2017, 04:08 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket updates of Match No 3 between Gujarat Lions (GL) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017. The match will be played at GL’s home ground Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot. I, Aditya Sahay, will try to make this blog as entertaining as possible, given the opening ceremonies have been rather mind-numbing. Gujarat will see a wounded Lion in Suresh Raina lead their side, while Kolkata will have their knight in purple amour and no non-sense skipper Gautam Gambhir captaining them. Full Cricket Scorecard, Gujarat Lions vs Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2017, Match 3
Lions look the more settled side with an array of explosive batsmen at their disposal. The likes of Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith and Aaron Finch will be keenly watched, while England opener Jason Roy will be under the pump to emulate his international form. Raina, who is making a comeback after a long break, will want to get the much-needed match time under his belt. The only concern for Lions will be the unavailability of Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja, who miss out due to injuries. Their bowling duties will be taken care by the Indian quadrate of Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Dhawal Kulkarni and Shivil Kaushik.
KKR meanwhile have their own conundrum to sort. Gambhir, along with Robin Uthappa, will continue to open the batting with Manish Pandey coming in at No. 3. Their middle order looks solid on paper but have been out of form. With no Andre Russell and Shakib Al Hasan in their ranks, much will depend on Yusuf Pathan and Suryakumar Yadav to provide late-order blitz. Chris Lynn and Chris Woakes will be highly anticipated to display their all-round skills. With no Umesh Yadav for the initial few games, international talents like Trent Boult and Nathan Coutler-Nile will be expected to shine. India’ new-found hero Kuldeep Yadav will take care of spin-bowling in the absence of Sunil Narine and Shakib.
Squads:
Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (c), Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan, Pradeep Sangwan, Shivil Kaushik, Shadab Jakati, Jaydev Shah. Jason Roy, Basil Thampi, Manpreet Gony, Shubham Agarwal, Tejas Singh Baroka, Chirag Suri, Pratham Singh, Shelley Shaurya.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Robin Uthappa (wk), Manish Pandey, Darren Bravo, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Suryakumar Yadav, Sunil Narine, Trent Boult, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Rovman Powell, Ishank Jaggi, Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Ankit Rajpoot, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sayan Ghosh.
