Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Average score at venue (1st inns): 164
Win percentage while batting first: 36.73%
Pitch conditions:
- Both teams should look forward to the prospect of putting big runs on the board, which have become frequent at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai of late.
- The venue has not favoured any side particular — teams batting second have also won a few matches here. It implies that the first-innings score will have a high value.
- Fast bowlers will have a greater role to play since their wicket-share percentage at this venue is at a high of 70.12%, while the spinners have only got 29.88% of the dismissals here.
Weather prediction:
The temperature will remain static at 30°C on Monday evening when Rajasthan will face a struggling Kolkata outfit at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The players will have to deal with high humidity levels, which will remain just under 80% for the entire duration of the game.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD (overall):
Matches played: 26
Kolkata won: 13
Rajasthan won: 12
No result: 1
Top 3 players from Kolkata: Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana
Top 3 players from Rajasthan: Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal
Top picks for H2H/WTA contest (top 5 players each):
Top 5 players from Kolkata: Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Umesh Yadav
Top 5 players from Rajasthan: Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Prasidh Krishna
Q & A:
Fantasy tips and tricks: Should I pick more bowlers, batsmen or all-rounders?
Kolkata batsmen will have to come together and put up a strong performance in order to end their 5-match losing streak, which has pushed them to the bottom of the points table for the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022. The contest between Kolkata and Rajasthan will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, for which having an extended batting line-up could do the trick as scores above 180 are easily obtainable. At the same time, fast bowlers enjoy more success than this venue and having 2-3 seamers and pacers will come in handy for fantasy cricket playing XI.
Fantasy tips: From which team should I pick more players in my XI? Which team is stronger?
There is absolutely no doubt here in stating that Rajasthan are the stronger side and should have more players featuring in the fantasy cricket playing XI. Rajasthan are currently placed 3rd in the points table with 6 wins in 9 matches giving them 12 points and a Net Run Rate (NRR) of 0.250, which is far better in comparison with Kolkata who have lost all of the last 5 matches to be pushed to the 8th spot — just above the worst performing teams in the tournament Mumbai and Chennai. Kolkata have only 3 wins to show from 9 matches and a grand total of 6 points, and their NRR of -0.006 also needs a bump.
MORE INFORMATION: Rajasthan and Kolkata are both coming into Monday night’s clash on the back of disappointing results in their respective previous outings. While Kolkata have lost 5 matches on the trot — their latest defeat coming at the hands of Delhi by 4 wickets — Rajasthan suffered a 5-wicket defeat at the hands of Mumbai, who recorded their first successful outcome in the Indian T20 League 2022. For Rajasthan, it is important to remain as consistent as possible since they are well-placed to make their case for a spot in the knockouts round, whereas Kolkata know that more awry results could bring troubles which will not be surmountable.
PLAYERS’ FORM: Kolkata will be hopeful that their big guns come together and fire in order to lift them from the trench that they have fallen into. Shreyas Iyer is their biggest hope as far as comeback in the tournament is concerned, and the talented middle-order batsman will need the others such as Aaron Finch, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Venkatesh Iyer to rally around him. On the other hand, Rajasthan would do well if big runs come from other batsmen who are not Jos Buttler, as the others have not chipped in with as much as they have promised. With the ball, Rajasthan again look a more formidable unit than Kolkata.
Changes in squad (if any): NO
LIKELY XIs:
KOLKATA: Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Baba Indrajith (wk), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana.
RAJASTHAN: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c&wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Daryl Mitchell, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen.
FANTASY XI: Jos Buttler (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shreyas Iyer (vc), Sanju Samson (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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