Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have received a big boost with their overseas recruits – Jason Roy from England and Bangladesh’s Litton Das – finally available for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday. Roy has been signed up for Rs 2.8 crore to replace skipper Shreyas Iyer, who has been ruled out of the entire season.


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In spite of injury issues, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan-owned KKR have managed to post two battling wins in the IPL 2023 and the addition of Roy and Das will definitely add to their resources. It remains to be seen if Roy will make his KKR debut on Friday night as he can replace Rahmanullah Gurbaz at the top. If Gurbaz is left out, the wicketkeeping gloves can be handed over to N. Jagadeesan.


Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Lockie Ferguson are expected to the other three overseas players for KKR. SRH, on the other hand, used England batter Harry Brook as the opener in their last game and are likely to continue with the same tactic against KKR as well.


Aiden Markram’s side will like to have Heinrich Klaasen with the wicketkeeping gloves as well as the South African has been in tremendous form with the bat off late. Apart from these three, Marco Jansen could retain his place in the side as the fourth overseas option.


In terms of ‘Impact Player’, KKR can once again use young leg-spinner Suyash Sharma in this role after the youngsters impressive performances in the first two games. If they are batting second, Suyash can be subbed out for Venkatesh Iyer.


SRH will look to use Abdul Samad as the ‘Impact Player’ if they bat second. Samad can replace one of the bowlers in the side if SRH are batting second.



Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Predicted Playing 11


Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)/Jason Roy, N Jagadeesan, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy


Sunrisers Hyderabad: Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik/ T Natrajan