The Indian Premier League is the biggest event in the annual cricket calendar. There is an unofficial break all over the world in international cricket for most of the duration of the league and star players from most cricket playing countries play in the league. Kolkata Knight Rider (KKR), who had lost to Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) in the semi-final of the playoffs, will be coming face to face again on Sunday. Both sides have incorporated changes in their squads.

Kolkata Knight Riders

KKR have put together a unit that looks more balanced than the side that they had last season. Captain Dinesh Kartik has among his ranks the likes of Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Sunil Naraine and Nitish Rana which makes their batting strength look good. Though the Indian batsmen may not feature in their national side regularly they have shown consistent performance on the domestic circuit. Their batting efforts will also be fortified by the all-around contributions of Andre Russel, who is expected to be fit in time for the match, Joe Denly and Carlos Brathwaite.

KKR is a little handicapped in their bowling department because Anrich Nortje, the South African paceman has been ruled out for the season due to an injury. They have been forced to replace Kamlesh Nagarkot and Shivam Mavi with Sandeep Warrior and KC Karriappa but they do still have Lockie Fergusson and Hary Gurney who can open the bowling attack for them. They will certainly be looking for a replacement for the South African speedster and have Sunil Naraine, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadhav as spinners. KKR will be coming hard at SRH looking to avenge their last season’s defeat in the semifinal match.

Sun Risers Hyderabad

The return of the suspended Australian cricketer David Warner to SRH will boost the morale of the runners up of the last season. In his absence, Kane Williamson had led the team to the finals only to lose to Chennai Super Kings. SRH has exchanged Shikhar Dhawan with the Delhi Capitals for three players in return. Vijay Shankar, the Indian international was one of those players. With Martin Guptill, Johnny Bairstow, Kane Williamson and David Warner they look like a solid batting side but some of them will have to sit out because of the limitation of foreign players that can play in a match.

On the bowling front, SRH can call upon Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Shakib Al Hasan, Billy Stanlake and T Natrajan and Basil Thampi. Their spin bowling will be led by the redoubtable Rashid Khan. Shakib Al Hassan and Abhishek Sharma and Yousuf Pathan as an all-rounder will assist him depending on the constitution of the team. VVS Laxman, the mentor of the Orange Brigade has announced on Friday that Kane Williamson will lead the side despite David Warner’s return.Prior to his suspention Warner was the captain of the team.

The match will be played at the Eden Gardens, the oldest and the largest ground among those hosting IPL matches. The pitch at the gardens is usually good for batting and has a bit in it for the fast bowlers also. As the game progresses it affords a bit of turn which will bring the spinners into play. With the league just starting, the match will be watched with great interest to see how two teams who finished in the top half of the league last season pan out.

As I am writing Pinnacle is offering odds of 1.90 on KKR winning the match. If you want to bet on SRH winning the match the odds on offer at Pinnacle are 2.01. These are the highest odds available in the market.