Kolkata Knight Riders host Royal Challengers Bangalore in their seventh Indian Premier League match of 2017 season at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
The second-placed hosts will be looking to return to winning ways after losing their home game to Gujarat Lions by four wickets on Friday. On the other hand, Virat Kohli's men, who are sitting at the seventh spot of the eight-team league table with only two wins from six matches, will eye to build on the win they registered against the Lions in their last game on 18 April.
RCB will be boosted by Chris Gayle's return to form as the West Indies opener lit up the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium last Tuesday with a 38-ball 77 that also had seven sixes.
A four-day break between the games has also helped AB de Villiers and Samuel Badree recover from their injuries and their addition will add firepower to the team, which needs to become consistent as early as possible to stand a chance of making it to the knockout stages.
Visiting teams have found the Eden Gardens a tough place to earn two points but Kohli's men should take confidence from their win at the venue last season.
Gambhir though will hope that Friday was one of those off-days for his bowlers as they were taken to the cleaners by the Lions. With Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav and Shakib Al Hasan in the line-up, KKR have world class spinners to take on the batting-heavy RCB unit. However, their pacers - Umesh Yadav, Chris Woakes and Nathan Coulter-Nile have to step up and deliver for the team.
All eyes will be on Narine as the West Indies spinner, apart from his tidy bowling spells, is also establishing himself as a dangerous batsman in the powerplay overs.
Team News
KKR
Possible XI: Gambhir (c), Narine, Uthappa (wk), Pandey, Pathan, Suryakumar, Shakib, Woakes, Coulter-Nile, Umesh, Kuldeep
RCB
Possible XI: Kohli (c), Gayle, De Villiers, Jadhav (wk), Watson, Mandeep, Binny, Negi, Aravind, Chahal, Mills
