Shreyas Iyer's Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals in the 47th match of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. KKR are on a five-match losing streak and need to win all their remaining games to qualify for the playoffs while on the other hand RR need two more wins to secure their place in the final four. To break the losing streak Shreyas Iyer is expected to make big changes in KKR playing XI for the RR clash. Tim Southee is likely to be dropped for Pat Cummins while Venkatesh Iyer could lose his place in the KKR playing XI.
The hustle is #KKRHaiTaiyaar #KKRvRR #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/FKhxtX2m9D
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 2, 2022
Two-time champion KKR played with seven bowling options in their last match against Delhi Capitals. Yet they could not defend 147 against DC. Key all-rounders like Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are not living up to the expectations. The addition of Cummins will give Iyer another batting option. However, that means they will have to drop Southee who has picked eight wickets in four games and is their third-highest wicket-taker this season.
In the batting department, constant failure from last year's star performer Venkatesh Iyer is a big headache for KKR team mangement. Venkatesh, who has scored 132 runs at an average of 16 in nine games this year, might have run out of chances and could be replaced by someone like Ajinkya Rahane.
On the other hand, Rajasthan are looking well balanced with Jos Buttler scoring the bulk of runs for them at the top followed by exceptional power-hitting by Shimron Hetmyer in the middle order. Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal are among the wickets with R Ashwin taking key wickets of the opposition batting lineup.
Predicted playing XI for KKR vs RR match in IPL 2022
Kolkata Knight Riders: Aaron Finch, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana, Baba Indrajith (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Harshit Rana, Pat Cummins
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Daryl Mitchell, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen
