Mitchell Starc OUT? Kolkata Knight Riders Likely Playing XI For IPL 2024 Match Against PBKS

Kolkata Knight Riders will face Punjab Kings in match No. 42 of the IPL 2024 on Friday (April 26). The eighth league stage match of the ongoing season of the cash-rich league will be played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In the last match played at the iconic stadium on Sunday (April 21), KKR defeated RCB by one run to secure their fifth win in seven matches. KKR would like to build on that narrow win by getting the better of the Punjab Kings on Friday and taking a big step towards securing a place in the IPL 2024 playoffs.

For the match against PBKS, KKR could drop Australian pacer Mitchell Starc from the playing XI. The 34-year-old left-arm pacer is horribly out of form in IPL 2024 and was hammered for 55 runs in three overs in the last match against RCB. The star Australian pacer, who was signed for Rs 24.75 crore in the IPL 2024 auction by KKR, has only managed to pick up six wickets in seven matches played so far. His economy rate has been 11.48, which is the worst among six bowlers who have picked up at least one wicket for KKR in the IPL 2024.

In Starc’s place, KKR could include Sri Lankan pacer Dushmantha Chameera or Indian speedster Vaibhav Arora in the playing XI. Vaibhav has picked up seven wickets in four matches of the IPL 2024 for KKR, whereas Chameera is yet to make his debut for the franchise.

In the batting, Sunil Narine, Phil Salt, and Shreyas Iyer have scored runs in the last few matches, but Venkatesh Iyer looked off-colour. He is expected to be dropped from the playing XI to make way for vice captain Nitish Rana, who has only played one match in the IPL this year.

KKR will expect Andre Russell to maintain his brilliant all-round show in the IPL 2024 and help KKR strengthen its No. 2 position in the points table by beating the Punjab Kings.

Kolkata Knight Riders’ likely playing XI for the IPL 2024 match against Punjab Kings: Phil Salt (WK), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (C), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Dushmantha Chameera, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy

Impact players: Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey