PBKS vs KKR: IPL 2023 Match preview, Possible lineups, Pitch report, and Dream XI team prediction

Punjab Kings & Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium on the first match among the two matches of the Super Saturday. Shikhar Dhawan will lead the Punjab side while Nitish Rana will be the leader of Kolkata this season as Shreyas Iyer will not be available for the first few games. Both teams had a poor season in 2022 as they finished sixth & seventh on the table. They would like to start the 16th edition of IPL with a statement win before charging for the beautiful title. Read the full match preview, pitch report & every detail about the PBKS vs KKR match with the likes of dream XI team prediction in our fantasy sports segment.

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PBKS vs KKR:

Match Details

Match: 2

Date: 01/04/2023

Time: 3:30 pm IST

Venue:  Punjab Cricket Association Stadium

Where to Watch: Star Sports, Jio Cinema

Venue Details | Pitch Report

The Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali has hosted a total of 55 IPL games so far. The team batting first have won 24, while the team batting second have won 31 games at this venue. The average first innings score in the last five T20 games here has been 140 runs. The pitch will likely provide a lot of support to the bowlers throughout the innings, and this might be a close contest.

PBKS vs KKR | Head to Head

• Matches Played: 30
• PBKS won: 10
• KKR won: 20

Read Also: IPL 2023: Possible XI of every IPL team

PBKS vs KKR:

PBKS vs KKR | Team News

Punjab Kings

Shikhar Dhawan has been named the new captain of the Kings. He is the 14th captain of the team since the 2008 edition. Before the mini-auction last year, the Kings released a total of nine cricketers, including former skipper Mayank Agarwal, Odean Smith, and Sandeep Sharma. At the IPL 2023 auction, they bought a total of six players. The Kings spent INR 18.5 crores to have Sam Curran in the squad, and he became the most expensive player in the auction history. Jonny Bairstow, who scored over 250 runs for the franchise last season, will miss this year because the ECB have not issued a NOC to him. Matthew Short, the second-highest run-scorer in BBL 2022-23, has replaced Bairstow.

Kolkata Knight Riders

The Knight Riders finished seventh last season with six wins from 14 games. Skipper Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out for the first few games this season, and Nitish Rana has been named the captain for the time period. They decided to retain just 14 players before the mini-auction and released 15 players. They traded Shardul Thakur from Delhi Capitals, Lockie Ferguson, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz from the Gujarat Titans. KKR made some exciting moves at the auction table as they bought David Wiese, Shakib Al Hasan, and Litton Das for their base price. They also bought N Jagadeesan for INR 90 lakh against his base price of INR 50 lakh.

PBKS vs KKR:

PBKS vs KKR | Possible Lineups

Punjab Kings:

• Shikhar Dhawan(C)
• Shahrukh Khan
• B Rajapaksa
• Sikandar Raza
• S Curran
• R Dhawan
• M Short
• J Sharma
• Harpreet Brar
• R Chahar
• Arshdeep Singh

PBKS | Squad: Arshdeep Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Rahul Chahar, Liam Livingstone, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Baltej Dhanda, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Mohit Rathe, Shivam Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders:

• R Singh
• N Rana(C)
• V Iyer
• A Russell
• S Narine
• Narayan Jagadeesan
• Rahmanullah Gurbaz
• Shardul Thakur
• L Ferguson
• Varun Chakravarthy
• U Yadav

KKR | Squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weise, Kulwant Khejrolia, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan.

PBKS vs KKR:

PBKS vs KKR | Dream XI Team Prediction