Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will kickstart proceedings of the second double-header weekend of the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 when they square off at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Saturday.

The KL Rahul-led side began their campaign with a Super Over defeat, but bounced back in style, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). However, since then they lost against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Mumbai Indians (MI), Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

Coming to KKR, they will be out to continue their winning run. While the Dinesh Karthik-led side lost their season opener against MI, they went on to register three wins in their next four games, beating SRH, RR and CSK.

KXIP will be out to halt their four-match losing streak and register their second win of the season while KKR will look to continue their winning run and here are the players to watch out for in the KXIP-KKR clash.

Nicholas Pooran

Nicholas Pooran made batting look fun during his stroke-filled 37-ball 77 blitz, where he slammed 7 sixes and 5 fours, against SRH. KXIP will bank on the left-hander to come good once again as they take on KKR.

Ravi Bishnoi

Ravi Bishnoi showed a lot of heart even when he conceded a couple of sixes in his first over against SRH and went on to pick three wickets. The young leg-spinner will now be up against the likes of Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik amongst others and will be looking to have another impressive outing with the ball.

Rahul Tripathi

Promoted to open the batting in his second game for KKR in IPL 2020, Rahul Tripathi starred with the bat for KKR during their win over CSK. The right-hander, who was effective and enterprising against pace and spin, scored 81 off 51 to set up his side’s third win of the season. Tripathi, who has thus far scored 117 runs across 2 outings, will be keen to have an encore of his showing against CSK when KKR face KXIP. 

Pat Cummins

He may have gone wicketless in his last outing, but Pat Cummins kept things extremely tight with the ball, conceding just 25 runs in his 4 overs. The right-arm pacer, who is one of the best bowlers going around, will be someone that KKR will bank on yet again.

Varun Chakravarthy

Varun Chakravarthy bowled well in the death overs and went on to pick the big wicket of MS Dhoni as KKR closed out the game against CSK. The mystery spinner has shown the courage to bowl the difficult overs, and it will now be interesting to see how he fares against the likes of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Nicholas Pooran.

Wild Card

Arshdeep Singh

Arshdeep Singh played his first game when KXIP faced SRH and returned with the figures of 2/33. The left-arm medium pacer will be looking to have another good outing with the ball.

Stats

• KXIP at this venue: Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1
• KKR at this venue: Played 6, Won 3, Lost 3

Approaching Milestones

• Mohammad Shami needs 1 wicket to complete 50 IPL wickets.
• KL Rahul needs 9 sixes to complete 100 IPL sixes.
• Eoin Morgan needs 3 runs and 6 sixes to complete 1000 IPL runs and 50 IPL sixes respectively.
• Andre Russell requires 50 runs to complete 1500 IPL runs.