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India legend Sunil Gavaskar has picked his Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) playing XI ahead of their IPL 2020 opener against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Wednesday (September 23).
While speaking on ‘Sports Tak’, Gavaskar started the proceedings by naming four foreign players in the form of Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell and Pat Cummins.
The former India skipper opined that Morgan’s inclusion to the middle order would bring steadiness.
Gavaskar selected Dinesh Karthik to bat in the middle order while for the openers he went with young gun Shubman Gill and impactful player Narine. The cricket-turned-commentator named Nitish Rana as number three batsman.
“Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan and Sunil Narine will be my four foreign players. After that, I would like to see skipper Dinesh Karthik bat in the middle-order. I will pick Nitish Rana at No.3 position. He can also bowl so he should, of course, be in the KKR playing XI,” said Gavaskar.
Gavaskar picked a strong bowling unit of KKR
Among the bowlers, Gavaskar went with Cummins, Narine and Kuldeep Yadav as the main attack of KKR. He further suggested that Russell could come handy with a few overs in order to become the fourth bowling option. Gavaskar also chose Varun Chakravarthy as the another spinner in the team.
“If you have three good bowlers like Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in your XI, Andre Russell can also bowl so he would be my fourth bowler.”
“Maybe Varun Chakravarthy can be the fifth bowler, the player who was sold for INR 8.5 crores in last year’s auction but played only one game. But this time he can play more matches and can become a trump card this year,” Gavaskar added.
The 71-year-old signed off by naming Shivam Mavi and Prasidh Krishna in his team. He picked Mavi ahead of Kamlesh Nagarkoti due to former’s experience in the cash-rich league.
“I will pick Shivam Mavi ahead of Kamlesh Nagarkoti because he has the experience of bowling in the IPL as he played in the 2018 IPL,” concluded Gavaskar.
Here is Sunil Gavaskar’s probable XI for KKR:
Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik (c), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna.
