The Cricketer takes a look at the next fixture in the 2022 Indian Premier League season
Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League.
The teams will face off on Saturday with the first ball being bowled at 3:30pm local time (11am GMT).
The match will be played at the Dr DY Sports Academy in Mumbai.
Gujarat are the leading team so far this year in the IPL having won five of their six matches and have a match in hand over their nearest rivals in the table.
They have a number of batters in form in their line up with David Miller smashing 94 off 51 deliveries including six sixes in their last outing to pull-off a difficult victory in the absence of captain Hardik Pandya.
Pandya has been Gujarat's best player in this tournament averaging 76 with the bat and providing control with the ball. He is expected to be back for this fixture after a groin injury kept him out of his team's last fixture.
Titans also have a star-studded bowling attack which includes New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson and leg-spinner Rashid Khan.
Mohammed Shami has been Titans' leading wicket taker this year and has been particularly effective in the powerplay.
After a good start Kolkata Knight Riders have lost their last three matches. They fell victim to Jos Buttler's blistering hundred and Yuzvendra Chahal's hat-trick in their last encounter and despite some destructive batting from Aaron Finch and Shreyas Iyer they were not able to get over the line.
However, they also have plenty of batsmen in form with Nitish Rana and Andre Russell both having made key contributions with the bat in the tournament alongside Finch finding touch in their last fixture.
Umesh Yadav and Sunile Narine have been decent with the ball for Knight Riders but their other bowlers have been expensive and not as effective as needed.
David Miller made 94 offf 51 balls (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP via Getty Images)
David Miller and Shreyas Iyer will be a good match-up. Both capable of batting at pace and hitting big scores in their previous outings, either of them are more than capable of helping their side rack up a big total.
How Pat Cummins fares for the Knight Riders in conjunction with Lockie Ferguson will also be key. Cummins has been expensive in KKR's last games and has only taken four wickets so far in this year's competition. While Ferguson can also be expensive, his raw pace and yorkers have meant he has been more potent for his side. Both are the lead overseas pace bowlers for their respective sides, and will have a big influence on whichever side comes out on top.
Matches played: 0
Kolkata Knight Riders wins: 0
Gujarat Titans wins: 0
The teams will have to deal with 35 degrees Celsius heat in Mumbai for most of the match with a slight breeze.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Aaron Finch, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mohammad Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Abhinav Sadarangani, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Viijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Prandeep Sangwan, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Gurkeerat Singh, Varun Aaron
Kolkata Knight Riders: Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Sheldon Jackson, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Lockie Ferguson
Andre Russell will be key for KKR (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Bet 365 has Kolkata as favourites at 4/5 whereas Gujarat Titans are at evens. Paddy Power has both teams at 9/10.
Gujarat have been such a strong team in their debut year so they will go into the fixture as favourites. KKR have the power and the skill to overcome the Titans but on form, Gujarat should come out on top.
In the UK, Sky Sports have exclusive rights to this year's tournament, with matches available on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket.
Fans in India can watch all of the action on Star Sports.
Elsewhere in the world, viewers in Australia can watch the IPL on Fox Sports while in New Zealand, Sky Sport will provide coverage.
Willow TV and Flow Sports will broadcast the tournament in the United States and the Caribbean, respectively.
Fans in MENA can catch the action on beIN Sports while in South Africa, SuperSport have the rights.
The IPL can also be streamed on Disney+ and Hotstar in certain areas.
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