The stage is set for an interesting battle as the Gujarat Lions take on the Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday in Rajkot.

The Lions handed out two crushing defeats to Gambhir’s knights the two times these teams met last season. While that should have ensured that Suresh Raina’s team would carry the mental edge, Kolkata Knight Riders also have a good reputation of starting strongly: they’ve won their opening matches in the last four seasons of the IPL.

However, both teams are struggling with injury issues this season and will hope that the replacements step up. It’ll be a battle between two feisty left-handed batsmen and captains, Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir.

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Time: 8pm

Venue: Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN

Results in 2016:

Played: 2
Gujarat Lions won: 2
Kolkata Knight Riders won: 0

Gujarat Lions

  • Suresh Raina will be missing two big guns. Dwayne Bravo, the only player in IPL history to have achieved the rare double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets will be missing the action as he is still recovering from a hamstring injury. Local favourite Ravindra Jadeja will also not be playing due to problems with his spinning finger.
  • For the captain, this is a chance to stake his claim after being dropped from Indian colours and even being called “a reluctant cricketer”. With more than 4000 runs in this tournament, Suresh Raina is the second-highest run getter and is an IPL legend. He wasn’t at his usual high peaks last season and will want to start off strongly.
  • With an opening partnership of Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith followed by Suresh Raina and Aaron Finch, expect fireworks if any of the big hitters get going.
  • The Lions had a great debut season finishing on top of the standings but lost both in the qualifier and eliminator to finish third. 

“The IPL is big and I am looking forward to having a great season this year. It is an important tournament and I am ready to go out all guns blazing.”

Suresh Raina, Gujarat Lions captain

Squad: Suresh Raina (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Brendon McCullum (wicket-keeper), James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan Kishan, (wicket-keeper), Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Chirag Suri, Shivil Kaushik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Pratham Singh, Jason Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Shelley Shaurya, Nathu Singh, Tejas Baroka, Andrew Tye, Akshdeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal and Basil Thampi.

Kolkata Knight Riders

  • The champions from 2012 and 2014 will be missing key personnel as they kick off their IPL 10 campaign. Gautam Gambhir won’t be able to call on the services of Shakib Al Hasan, who’s just joined the team after Bangladesh’s second Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka, and Umesh Yadav, who will only be able to play two weeks later.
  • A key player they will miss through the season is Andre Russell who is serving a one-year ban for a doping violation. New Zealand’s Colin de Grandhomme has been roped in as his replacement  and it remains to be seen how Kolkata fare.
  • The Knight Riders had a middling 2016 season. A string of poor results towards the end of the season (with two of them being losses handed out by Gujarat) led to them exiting at the playoffs stage. They will want to start the season on a more consistent note.
  • Gambhir’s knights have won their opening matches in each of the last four tournaments.

“It’s the team effort that matters. That’s what has helped us season after season.”

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Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders captain

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Robin Uthappa (wicket-keeper), Darren Bravo, Ishank Jaggi, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Chris Lynn, Suryakumar Yadav, Sheldon Jackson (wicket-keeper), Chris Woakes, Rishi Dhawan, Sanjay Yadav, Rovman Powell, Shakib Al Hasan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Sayan Ghosh, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Colin de Grandhomme (as replacement for Andre Russell)