Rajasthan Royals Vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Match scheduled to begin at 16:00 local time (10:30 GMT)
Current time: 13:16 local, 07:46 GMT
Hours of play (local time): 16.00 start, First Session 16.00-17.20, Interval 17.20-17.40, Second Session 17.40-19.00
The first week could hardly have been worse for Rajasthan Royals. They have lost three matches in a row, lost two important overseas players to injury. To make things worse, a day after their abject capitulation at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Warne has the added worry of monitoring the fitness of key allrounder Shane Watson, who has picked up a strain to his right hip in New Zealand. Their batting looks overly reliant of the brutal hitting of Yusuf Pathan, who was kept quiet by Royal Challengers Bangalore with a barrage of short deliveries. Warne has urged his fans to not lose faith in the team, but what he needs is more from his players, both the Indian ones and the foreign recruits. Questions are already being raised over the strange buys ahead of this season, and those won't go away unless Michael Lumb and Damien Martyn start delivering
Shane Warne has plenty of headaches when it comes to picking his side. While the bowling can't be blamed for Thursday's defeat to Bangalore, fast bowler Morne Morkel repeatedly gifted runs away by bowling on the leg stump, which might make Rajasthan repose faith in Shaun Tait's pace again. Also, both Lumb and Martyn were scratchy in their IPL debuts; one of them should make way for Australian Adam Voges, who also provides the option of a few overs of left-arm spin.
For Kolkata, the return of Gayle means Owais Shah could be sidelined, though the England batsman has done little wrong in the tournament so far. Rohan Gavaskar was picked ahead of Cheteshwar Pujara in the previous game, and it remains to be seen whether Kolkata persist with that policy on Saturday. With Ajit Agarkar and Charl Langeveldt still recovering from injuries, no changes are likely to the bowling line-up.
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