Kolkata's mystery spinners provide a great match-up against Punjab's power hitters.

LIVE SCORES - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings, Match 8

Rabada in for Sandeep

Punjab Kings won their first match of IPL 2022 against Royal Challengers Bangalore by 5 wickets, but their bowlers will have to pull up their socks as they conceded more than 200 runs in their first match.

The main culprits were Harpreet Brar and Odean Smith both of whom went at over 12 runs per over.

Kagiso Rabada, having just competed in the ODI series against Bangladesh, will be back and will replace Sandeep Sharma in the Punjab XI. The team will be without wicketkeeper batsman Jonny Bairstow as well who will be available from the next match onwards.

In the meantime, they will have to think of a better spinner in their playing XI if they are to trouble Kolkata Knight Riders, who themselves bank on Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy to do the job for them through the middle overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders have already competed in two matches in IPL 2022. They won their first match against Chennai Super Kings quite comfortably but the team suffered a three wicket defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their second match.

While the bowlers did a terrific job for Kolkata in the first match Chennai, it was the batsmen who let Kolkata down against Bangalore.

That said, they get full marks for intent as the KKR batsmen wanted to go hard at the DY Patil Sports Academy but the surface was a bit tricky and the short ball was difficult to hit.

The KKR batters tried to force the issue and paid the price, getting all out for 128. But, it was their bowling once again which kept them in the match.

KKR's impressive bowlers

Umesh Yadav has been a revelation for Kolkata the way he has bowled in the powerplay. The inclusion of Tim Southee in place of Shivam Mavi also paid off for Kolkata. But, Andre Russell is not in great bowling form and Kolkata need to have a backup option ready for him.

Punjab have an excellent batting line up with big hitters all the way down to number 7, which should make for some interesting viewing.

Predicted Playing XIs

Punjab Kings - Mayank Agarwal (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Raj Bawa, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar

Kolkata Knight Riders - Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Umesh Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy

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