KKR vs RCB IPL 2023 Weather And Pitch Report: Rain Likely To Stay Away From Kolkata Fixture

RCB, who opened their IPL 2023 account with a dominant win against MI, take on Shreyas Iyer-less KKR in their first away game of the season in Kolkata on Thursday night.

Source: Twitter

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are going to take on each other for the first time in Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) on Thursday at the Eden Gardens stadium. This will be the first home game for KKR who lost their opening match to Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 7 runs (DLS method) at Mohali. Nitish Rana and his team will be looking to collect the first points after a poor start to their campaign. On the other hand, RCB are coming into this contest on back of a confidence-boosting win over five-time Champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in their opening clash. The form of their openers - Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis - will cheer up the RCB fans.

Kohli smashed an unbeaten 82 off just 49 balls against MI whole skipper Faf scored 73 off just 43 balls to take RCB to a dominant eight-wicket win in Bengaluru. The Royal Challengers will be hoping for a similar performance from the two experienced batters against KKR.

Knight Riders have a lot to improve upon after their disastrous start to the season. They scoresheet might say that they lost by just 7 runs (as per DLS) but the fact is that they never looked like competing with Kings from Punjab. KKR bowlers were taken to the cleaners as PBKS put on 191 for 5 from their 20 overs. KKR, in the chase, were 29 for 3 at one stage and continued to play the catch up game till the end. 

_________ ___ _______ __@NitishRana_27 #KKRvRCB #AmiKKR #TATAIPL 2023 pic.twitter.com/wHH6dXJjA1

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 6, 2023

Rana and Co must look at the opener as a wake up call and pull up their socks for the Royal Challenge rom Bangalore at home.

Kolkata weather report ahead of KKR vs RCB clash

The weather in Kolkata is expected to stay cricket friendly. There is no chance of rain in West Bengal's capital city on Thursday. Expect a full 40-overs game, which is a good news for the fans. 

KKR vs RCB: Players to watch out for

Abdre Russell, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer will be key players for KKR. Watch out for Kohli, Faf, Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell in the RCB lineup. It will be interesting to see how KKR spinners - Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy - do against Kohli, who has had issues against wrist spinners of late.

Eden Gardens Pitch report:

The track of Eden Gardens has always suited the batters. But it is also true that the pitch helps the spinners. The team batting first may look to bowl first due to the dew on the grass which does not help in defending a total in the night. Eden Gardens has hosted 77 IPL matches, out of which chasing teams have won 45 times while teams batting first have won on 31 times.

KKR vs RCB Probable Playing 11

KKR Probable Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee/Lockie Ferguson, Anukul Roy, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

RCB Probable Playing XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Shabaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, David Willey, Mohammed Siraj