FANTASY PREVIEW
Follow UsIn what is set to be a significant match in the race for the playoffs, fifth-placed Rajasthan Royals will take on sixth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. Both teams enter the contest on the back of losses in their previous respective matches, but it’s KKR who are in a more concerning position, having lost each of their last two games. The winner of the contest will join Lucknow, Bangalore and Sunrisers as the fourth team with eight points.
Ground Details
In IPL 2022, the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai has been host to high-scoring encounters. The run rate at the venue has been a staggering 9.4, the highest among all grounds. The average batting-first score of 192 at the Brabourne is also the highest figure among all four venues in the group stage of IPL 2022.
Brabourne last hosted a match three days ago, the clash between Lucknow and Mumbai, and it was a high-scoring thriller that proved to be a nail-biter. Batting first, LSG managed to post 199, and Mumbai eventually fell short by 18 runs despite, at one stage, looking like they would chase the target down.
On that occasion, the game was won by the team that batted first, but in the 7 matches that have been played at the venue so far, 4 have been won by the team chasing. Overall, it’s one of the venues where toss has played a negligible part in deciding the outcome of the game.
On the bowling front, the high-scoring nature of the venue has obviously meant that the ground has been a graveyard for the bowlers, with both pacers and spinners enjoying little success in terms of run-containment. When it comes to wickets, however, it is the quicker bowlers who have been the most effective. 67% of the wickets to have fallen this season as the Brabourne have been taken by the faster bowlers.
Team selection
Captain selection
35, 100, 70*, 13, 54. This, this right here is precisely why you should have no second thoughts in appointing Jos Buttler the skipper of your fantasy team. With 272 runs he’s the highest run-getter of this IPL 2022 season so far, yes, but Buttler seems to have unlocked an insane consistency cheat in the shortest format. He’s just been untouchable in T20s since the start of the T20 World Cup. It would be a big surprise if the Englishman doesn’t end up playing another impactful knock on Monday.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Buttler to score between 33-49 runs against the Knight Riders.
X-factors
Shimron Hetmyer might have scored some 75 runs fewer than Buttler so far, but his knocks have been just as impactful, if not more. He, too, has been in red-hot form, his scores in the season reading 32, 35, 42*, 59* and 29. The West Indian has been a revelation this season, and there’s every chance he could smash to smithereens a KKR attack that, outside of Narine and Umesh, is seriously down on confidence.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Hetmyer to score between 38-58 runs vs KKR.
Someone whose performances have not been spoken about enough, Yuzvendra Chahal’s sensational form has been key to RR’s rise in IPL 2022. With a remarkable 12 wickets in 5 matches, he is the current purple-cap holder, and on Monday he will be coming up against a KKR batting line-up that has multiple batters who struggle against wrist-spin. In terms of x-factors with the ball, Chahal is number one on the list in Monday’s encounter.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Chahal to pick 2-3 wickets against KKR
Andre Russell has not enjoyed the greatest of seasons with the ball, but his batting alone is reason enough to label him as one of the players to watch out for. With 179 runs, Dre Russ is KKR’s highest run-scorer of the season so far, but his runs have come at an incredible SR of 179.00. He, too, is in red-hot form (struck a 25-ball 49 in the last match) and should therefore be backed to get the job done once again.
Our Criclytics Player Projector predicts Russell to score 16-24 runs and pick 2-3 wickets
Here are the top-10 picks as per Criclytics projected points
Probable XIs
KKR: Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Aman Hakim Khan, Varun Chakaravarthy
RR: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Rassie van der Dussen, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Kuldeep Sen, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal
