Kolkata Knight Riders will meet Royal Challengers Bangalore for the first time in the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League on Sunday night at the Eden Gardens.

While KKR are sitting comfortably in the top half of the points table with, four wins and two defeats, RCB are struggling in the bottom half with only two wins from six matches. The Virat Kohli-led side are returning to action after a four-day break and will be looking to get a crucial win in Kolkata, to revive their IPL campaign.

Time: 8 pm

Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels

Results in 2016:

Played: 2

Kolkata Knight Riders won: 1

Royal Challengers Bangalore won: 1

Kolkata Knight Riders

  • The Gautam Gambhir-led team are coming after a four-wicket loss to Gujarat Lions, who chased down 188 easily, bouncing back from a 10-wicket loss to KKR early in the tournament. 
  • KKR will look to attack the top-heavy RCB batting lineup by repeating their strategy to employ spin from ends with the new ball. Sunil Narine could prove to be the key here as he has a track record of subduing Gayle - who has a strike-rate of only 88.88 against the KKR spinner.
  • In the three games at the Eden Gardens this season, fast bowlers have taken more wickets than spinners. Pacers have a total of 23 wickets, while spinners have taken 10 wickets.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (c), Robin Uthappa (wicket-keeper), Darren Bravo, Ishank Jaggi, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Chris Lynn, Suryakumar Yadav, Sheldon Jackson (wicket-keeper), Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Sanjay Yadav, Rovman Powell, Shakib Al Hasan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Sayan Ghosh, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Colin de Grandhomme.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

  • RCB will look to Chris Gayle for another blistering start after his return to form in their last match, where he scored 77 against Gujarat Lions. The West Indian has a great record at Eden Gardens, having scored 471 runs in nine innings there, his second-best IPL tally at a ground after Bangalore.
  • RCB has struggled with injuries right from the start of this season, but fortunes might be changing for Kohli’s team as star performers AB de Villiers, Samuel Badree and Tymal Mills are expected to be fit for Sunday’s match.
  • Kohli, Gayle, de Villiers and Shane Watson have an overall scoring rate of 8.07 this season, a relatively low number for batsmen of their calibre and they will be keen to change that as soon as they can.

Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Pawan Negi, Tymal Mills, Aniket Choudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sarfaraz Khan, S Aravind.