Shreyas' comeback in spotlight in Starc vs Cummins showdown

Shreyas Iyers comeback from a long injury layoff will be in focus as IPLs two biggest signings Australian pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins go head to head in Kolkata Knight Riders opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad here on SaturdayThe Indian batter after missing the entire season last year due to a back injury returns to lead KKR who have made some tactical additions while keeping the nucleus of the side intactShreyas sparkled with the bat with a 95 in Mumbais Ranji Trophy triumph recently but it remains to be seen whether hell be available for all the matches given his fitness concernsKKRs most successful leader Gautam Gambhir is back in his second innings as a mentor His partnership with head coach Chandrakant Pandit a shrewd tactician in domestic circuit will be the key to their revivalAlso Read Smash the bouncerThis is your franchise make it or break it team principal owner Shah Rukh Khan has told Gambhir Under the former India cricketers captaincy KKR had a golden run from 20112017 two IPL titles five playoffs and a runnersup finish in the now defunct Champions League T20 tournamentThe biggest signing of this IPL is with KKR and by acquiring Starc at a record sum of Rs 2475crore the leftarm quick will be under huge pressure to performHis spell in powerplay and the death overs will be the key Starc and Andre Russell are the only two experienced pacers in KKRs ranks and with no likeforlike replacements for them their workload management will be crucialKKR boast of a starstudded toporder batting lineup in Rahmanullah Gurbaz Phil Salt Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas to go with the RussellRinku Singh firepower at the deathBut the Gambhirmentored side will rely heavily on the home conditions to offer some spin so as to give the likes of Sunil Narine Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma some assistance Starc will have his skipper Cummins leading SRH in the adjacent dugout as the Australian captain will also have his task cut outCummins Rs 2050crore is the thirdmost expensive buy in this IPL and all eyes will be on him to revive the fortunes of the side that has had two woodenspoon finishes in the last two seasonsAlso Read IN PHOTOS IPL 2024 RCB vs CSK Heres all you need to knowOn paper KKR with a starstudded batting and spinheavy attack to complement Starcs pace will be overwhelming favouritesBut SRH under the shrewd captaincy of Cummins will definitely fancy their chances Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasens batting firepower in the powerplay and death overs will be vitalTheir bowling also looks balanced with the experienced Cummins and Indias veteran deathovers specialist Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the lineup while the likes of Washington Sundar and Wanindu Hasaranga will be crucial in the spin departmentIt remains to be seen whether Hasaranga the ace Sri Lankan allrounder who has been banned by the ICC for the Tests against Bangladesh will be available for SRHs openerSquadsKolkata Knight Riders Shreyas Iyer c Nitish Rana vc Manish Pandey Ramandeep Singh Rinku Singh Sakib Hussain Anukul Roy Venkatesh Iyer Sherfane Rutherford Angkrish Raghuvanshi Andre Russell Sunil Narine KS Bharat Phil Salt Rahmanullah Gurbaz Vaibhav Arora Chetan Sakariya Dushmantha Chameera Varun Chakaravarthy Mitchell Starc Mujeeb Ur Rahman Harshit Rana and Suyash SharmaSunrisers Hyderabad Pat Cummins c Abdul Samad Abhishek Sharma Aiden Markram Travis Head Wanindu Hasaranga Marco Jansen Rahul Tripathi Washington Sundar Glenn Phillips Sanvir Singh Heinrich Klaasen Bhuvneshwar Kumar Mayank Agarwal T Natarajan Anmolpreet Singh Mayank Markande Upendra Singh Yadav Umran Malik Nitish Kumar Reddy Fazalhaq Farooqi Shahbaz Ahmed Jaydev Unadkat Akash Singh Jhathavedh SubramanyanTime 730PM ISTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever