IPL 2023 Match 19 Condensed KKR Preview

This is turning out to be a great season for my Kolkata Knight Riders! It’s been fun covering them on a daily and weekly basis with my preview and review series. Today will be Match #19 in the IPL 2023 season. KKR will take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), so this is my preview of the matchup. At one point, I had a lot of bad blood against this team because of how many key matches we’d lose to them. In the head-to-head matchup, KKR does hold a 15-8 lead in 23 games.

Photo Cred: CricGram

In the 2023 season, the Knight Riders have a 2-1 record, a fourth-place ranking, and the league’s second-best NRR. Meanwhile, SRH is languishing at the bottom of the table: 1-2, ninth place, and the league’s second-worst NRR. However, their South African overseas contingent has arrived and, as such, Hyderabad’s performance got better. As always with the pregame previews, here’s what you can expect: ideal playing XIs, any pre-match news/updates, and a little information on the opponents and what to watch out for. Links to the entire series will be provided below as always.

Pre-match News & Updates

1. As mentioned earlier, Englishman Jason Roy has arrived in India and has now gotten a couple of training sessions in with his teammates. Now, another overseas player is joining the fray: Bangladeshi Litton Das. Das is back after the conclusion of the Bangladesh-Ireland one-off Test. All players from both sides are now in India and there shouldn’t be any more player unavailabilities other than for injuries.

Photo Cred: YouTube- Kolkata Knight Riders (Translation: Litton Das has arrived!!!)

My KKR Predicted Playing XIs

Bat-first

1. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (overseas- Afghanistan) (wicket-keeper)
2. Narayan Jagadeesan
3. Venkatesh Iyer
4. Nitish Rana (captain)
5. Rinku Singh
6. Andre Russell (overseas- West Indies/Jamaica)
7. Sunil Narine (overseas- West Indies/Trinidad & Tobago)
8. Umesh Yadav
9. Lockie Ferguson (overseas- New Zealand)
10. Kulwant Khejroliya
11. Varun Chakravarthy

Photo Cred: Devdiscourse (Rana and Rinku)

Bowl-first

1. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (overseas- Afghanistan)
2. Narayan Jagadeesan (wicket-keeper)
3. Venkatesh Iyer
4. Nitish Rana (captain)
5. Rinku Singh
6. Sunil Narine (overseas- West Indies/Trinidad & Tobago)
7. Umesh Yadav
8. Lockie Ferguson (overseas- New Zealand)
9. Kulwant Khejroliya
10. Varun Chakravarthy
11. Suyash Sharma

Photo Cred: MoneyBall (Khejroliya)                           Photo Cred: YouTube- CRICkled

My Impact Player Possibility

Continuing my Impact Player selection process from the last preview, I will list several players who play various different roles. In my playing XI reasoning, I will name who my eventual/actual Impact Player will be.

Batter: Indian option- Mandeep Singh, overseas option- Jason Roy (England).

As previously mentioned, Mandeep is the only real Indian batter we have left, now that Jagadeesan has also made his season debut. I really hope that KKR can/will select a replacement player for Shreyas Iyer soon… Other than the names I have mentioned in articles 1 and 3 of this series, it seems that KKR has a player they have in mind as well who I would not mind bringing in: Bengali Sudip Kumar Gharami. Gharami (RHB, OB) is a top-order batter for the Bengal state team.

KKR has had a lack of local flair lately in the last few seasons, with Bangladeshis Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das being the only ones in recent times who can even speak and understand Bengali. 2017 was the last time Kolkata had a legit Bengali on their roster: Sayan Ghosh. I will pick Roy ahead of Das as my overseas batter because I want to see him continue to unleash in the IPL as he has in past seasons.

Photo Cred: Sportstar – The Hindu (Gharami)

Seam Bowler: Indian option- Shardul Thakur, overseas option- David Wiese (Namibia/formerly South Africa)/Andre Russell (West Indies/Jamaica).

As I have included Khejroliya into the side, Thakur is slotted in as the Indian seam-bowling option. Wiese would always be my overseas seam bowler unless Russell (for some reason) doesn’t make the cut.

Spin Bowler: Indian option- Suyash Sharma.

Suyash will always be picked over Anukul Roy for me. He’s had two good games so far and a total of four wickets. There aren’t any overseas spin options for us, which means Narine will almost always play all our games going forward.

Photo Cred: Twitter

My Playing XI Reasoning

1. After some chopping and changing in my previous rosters, I will opt for some stability (at least in my batting-first XI). Jagadeesan will get another run at the opening job with Gurbaz. So will the now-healthy Ferguson on the bowling end (and as batting depth).
2. Since Jagadeesan was able to take a blinder of a catch vs. Gujarat, he will be an outfield player while Gurbaz takes the gloves (as he has for the past three games in real life).
3. Iyer and Rana swap places after how the last game was played. Iyer had a beautiful 40-ball 83 to go along with Rana’s 29-ball 45. They had a 100-run partnership together.
4. Rinku has more or less solidified himself in the middle order forever for us. Regardless of who we bring in next year and even when Shreyas Iyer slots back into the side, it would be very hard-pressed for us to drop him at all.
5. In my bat-first XI, Russell gets another opportunity to prove himself. Through no fault of his own, he hasn’t been given a single over to bowl yet. As a pure batter, his last two innings (first-ball duck, 2-ball 1) have not been as successful as his first (19-ball 35).
6. In both of my playing XIs, I have taken Shardul Thakur out of the attack. My reason is that he was bought in more for his bowling exploits than as a batter. That’s not to say I don’t value his batting at all or that he can be a bowling all-rounder, though. As a bowler, he has conceded 98 runs in nine overs. He managed to wedge in a two-over, 15-ball performance in between games where he gave up 83 runs in seven overs… He has got to make way, at least for now.
   • This is where my main Indian seam-bowling backup option, Khejroliya, comes in. There are two other options (Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana) but I like Khejroliya’s overall T20 stats.
   • Arora has just as many IPL games (five) and wickets (three) as Khejroliya, but he got that all in one season (2022). Khejroliya played his five games across two seasons. Khejroliya has a worse economy rate (9.73 vs. 9.20) overall but his bowling average is better (51.33 vs. 54.67), which is not saying much.
   • Meanwhile, Harshit has had one game that did not exactly go well: one wicket, 51.00 ave, 10.20 econ.
7. Narine, Yadav, and Chakravarthy are my three constants in the bowling department for their solid, consistent performances in the last three games. Narine and Yadav also provide much-needed batting depth.
8. I would normally play Ferguson ahead of Yadav as a batter, but the team management seems to have recently put more faith in Yadav so I will also adjust my lineup.
9. In my bowl-first XI, Narine has to play at no. 6 because, wait for it, I have dropped Andre Russell… I know, I know, lay it on me! That’s the second straight hot take/bold choice I’ve made in back-to-back articles (I wanted to drop Yash Dayal even before his horror show vs. KKR and especially more so afterward). I have made this decision for a particular reason, which will be listed below.
10. In my bat-first XI, my Impact Player selection would be Suyash Sharma. He has provided excellent mystery spin so far in the two games he’s played. In game 3 against the Titans, he even got to bowl more overs to counter Chakravarthy’s off day with the ball.
11. In my bowl-first XI, my Impact Player will be none other than Andre Russell. Think about it. He’s that type of player who can make or break a side with his useful knocks and is even valuable as a bowler too. Why not bring him into a situation that calls for his name? He hasn’t been able to perform with the bat in the last two games, and he hasn’t even handed the ball for one over yet. This is why I want to take him out for a three-seam, three-spin attack. He can just come in to chase in the second innings.

Photo Cred: ESPNcricinfo (Narine bowling, Chakravarthy standing)

KKR Player Unavailability

1. Shreyas Iyer: Back surgery, ruled out of the tournament.
2. Shakib Al Hasan (overseas- Bangladesh): Opted out of the tournament.

The Opponent- Sunrisers Hyderabad

What to Watch Out For

1. The South African overseas contingent. Aiden Markram (the captain), Marco Jansen, and wicket-keeper Heinrich Klaasen were sorely missed in the first two games.
   • Markram bowled well in SRH’s second game of the season (14 runs in two overs) but was out the first ball.
     • Markram also captains the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20, a team that falls under the Sunrisers group. He led them to a championship this year in the league’s inaugural season.
   • Jansen picked up two wickets on his season debut against PBKS (2/16 in three overs, including bowling a maiden over).
   • Klaasen has yet to record a statistic for Hyderabad, but he’s still a pretty good option for the Sunrisers to have.
2. Mayank Agarwal, Abdul Samad, and Rahul Tripathi are the key enforcers batting so far in the season. Agarwal acts as an anchor up top, Tripathi comes in at no. 3 to stabilize the game, and Samad acts as the lower-order finisher.
3. Lots of possibilities to find success.
   • Fazalhaq Farooqi has picked up three wickets so far in two games, including an amazing game against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
   • Englishman Adil Rashid has brought in consistency as the spin option: 8.25 econ in his first game, 7.66 econ in the second and picked up two wickets too.
     • Apparently, he can bat too! He got a 13-ball 18 against RR (hitting a six and a four) and a three-ball four (hit one four) against LSG.
   • Anmolpreet Singh opened in the second game of the season and managed to get at least 30 runs.
   • Mayank Markande, on season debut, picked up a four-wicket haul for only a 3.75 economy rate!
4. Honorable Mention: The quality of the seamers. They have been rather expensive as a group (except for Jansen), so that’s why they are just honorable mentions. However, it would be very foolish on my end to not even mention them at all, so I have.
   • Bhuvneshwar Kumar can swing and reverse swing the ball early, then go on to bowl slower deliveries and yorkers at the death.
   • T Natarajan, as a left-arm seamer, has usually been hard to pick apart with his swing bowling.
   • Umran Malik just bowls fast and tries to go for the speed record. This used to trouble batters in his first two seasons, but now he is rather expensive at times.
   • Jansen troubles batters with his tall frame, which allows for extra bounce. That can either hurry batters into making rushed decisions or cramps them for space. He bowls speeds of 140-150 kph (87-93 mph), which is also a problem to face.

Photo Cred: India Today (Markram)                    Photo Cred: ESPNcricinfo (Jansen)

Any Previous Player/Team History

1. The biggest previous history between team and player will be for Rahul Tripathi. Tripathi made waves in the IPL in 2017 as a member of the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant and was subsequently bought the next year by the Rajasthan Royals (RR). Now, he’d always been a top-order specialist batter (that was his main position), so batting lower for RR was not such a welcome change for him. When KKR got him in 2020, we slotted him back up top, using him as an opener and no. 3 option. It was really sad to see him go to SRH in the 2022 IPL Auction, and he’s been further showing the world his talents and skills. He even got to make his India debut this year, which makes me very proud of him!
   • His greatest moment of mine while at KKR was when he batted with a leg injury but hit a last-ball six against the Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 in 2021 to send us to the IPL final!
2. Other than a few honorable mentions, only Jason Roy has any real previous IPL history. SRH was formerly Roy’s team in 2021, as a replacement player just as he is now for KKR.
3. There is another possible Afghanistan vs. Afghanistan matchup here, but only if Fazalhaq Farooqi plays for SRH. He would take on his fellow countryman and wicket-keeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
4. There’s also the Tamil Nadu connection of T Natarajan and Washington Sundar vs. N Jagadeesan. Should be interesting to see how guys who regularly face each other in the nets end up playing against each other!
5. Honorable Mentions:
   1. Shakib Al Hasan, if he had played this year, would’ve had history on both sides. He’s only played for these two teams in the IPL, KKR from 2011-17, 2021, and 2023 and then SRH from 2018-19.
   2. Akeal Hosein has played for the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders recently in the International League T20 (IL20) and also for the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL). Since Abu Dhabi and Trinbago (Trinidad & Tobago combined) are under the Knight Riders Sports group, Hosein would be playing against them if he played for SRH today.

Photo Cred: DNA India (Tripathi)                                          Photo Cred: Siasat.com (Roy)

The Links to My KKR Preview & Review Series

1. My Thoughts on the Kolkata Knight Riders for the IPL 2023 season (also includes the condensed preview of KKR vs. PBKS)
2. IPL 2023 Match 2 Condensed Review- KKR vs. PBKS
3. IPL 2023 Match 9 Condensed KKR Preview
4. IPL 2023 Match 9 Condensed Review- KKR vs. RCB
5. IPL 2023 Match 13 Condensed KKR Preview
6. IPL 2023 Match 13 Condensed Review- KKR vs. GT