Aakash Chopra personally asserts that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are positioned as the strongest team in IPL 2024. According to him the twotime champions are set to emerge victorious against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their final league encounter in Guwahati on Sunday (May 19). Furthermore he predicts that if faced in Qualifier 1 KKR will once again prevail over Sanju Samson and his squad.
With 19 points accumulated over 13 games KKR secures a topofthetable position at the end of the league stage in IPL 2024. The team will go headtohead with either RR or SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (May 21) based on the results of Sundays matches.
In a video posted to his YouTube account, Chopra stated that the Kolkata Knight Riders had an almost ideal team and predicted that they will continue their dominant streak.
“Very difficult to find faults in this team. All things are working almost perfectly. A dream season is unfolding in front of us. If I tell the truth, KKR are the best team at the moment, they are already at No. 1, and I feel they will beat Rajasthan as well, here also and even in Qualifier 1 as well if they meet them there.”
Aakash Chopra
The former India opener stated that KKR’s sole concern may be the likely replacement of in-form Phil Salt with Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
“Kolkata will play Rahmanullah Gurbaz for sure, it’s obvious, and that’s the only thing they need to correct. Since Phil Salt has left, will they miss him a lot? Maybe yes, maybe not, but Rahmanullah is a brilliant player. So from Kolkata’s viewpoint, he should score runs.”
Aakash Chopra
Salt, who scored 435 runs at a strike rate of 182.00 in 12 innings, has returned to England ahead of the next T20I series against Pakistan. Gurbaz will most likely start with Sunil Narine in Sunday’s encounter.
“It has been a slightly cold season for him” – Aakash Chopra on KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer
While Aakash Chopra expects Sunil Narine to dominate with both bat and ball in Guwahati, he also believes Shreyas Iyer will want to improve.
“Sunil Narine’s batting and bowling can both work very well on this pitch because, strangely enough, dew is not coming. I don’t know how but dew wasn’t there. Shreyas Iyer hasn’t scored those many runs thus far. It has been a slightly cold season for him, so he would want to score runs.”
Aakash Chopra
The acclaimed analyst pointed out that Rinku Singh is the only KKR middle-order batsman who is yet to play a significant knock.
“Venkatesh Iyer is playing well. If we go down the order, (Andre) Russell is playing very well but Rinku Singh hasn’t scored that many runs. So he should score runs and Ramandeep Singh plays well in any case. Nitish Rana also played well in the last match.”
Aakash Chopra
Chopra said that KKR has a potent bowling attack in Harshit Rana, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Sunil Narine, with Vaibhav Arora expected to play as an extra seamer in Guwahati. He also mentioned that Andre Russell has been bowling really effectively for the visitors.