Kolkata Take on Delhi in IPL 6 Opener

Eyeing a repeat of their success last season, Kolkata Knight Riders will open their title defence with a clash against a depleted Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Expectations will be high from the home side as they would aim to become only second team to win back-to-back titles. Only Chennai Super Kings have won consecutive trophies (2010 and 2011).
For Delhi, who are yet to win the title, it would be a season to make amends as they look at life without English swashbuckler Kevin Pietersen who has been ruled out for the entire tournament due to a knee injury.
Delhi will also miss out on explosive Kiwi batsman Jesse Ryder who was to begin his $300,000 contract before a brutal assault in a Christchurch bar left him hospitalised.
Last season's Purple cap holder, Morne Morkel (25 wickets), who bowled Titans to a semis place in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge in the South Africa domestic cricket, will also miss out on the opener.
And if that was not enough, Virender Sehwag is also a doubtful starter for the tournament-opener as he is down with back spams.
Having recovered from jaundice, KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir will be eager to start on a winning note under conditions best suited to them.
Among the foreign recruits, KKR will miss Brendon McCullum, who is down with a hamstring problem, while the recently-married Shakib Al Hasan is yet to report to the side.
West Indian mystery spinner Sunil Narine, the second leading wicket-taker behind Morkel with 24 scalps, was instrumental in KKR's success last season.
KKR will now hope to unleash another 'mystery' spinner in Lankan offie Sachitra Senanayake in the upcoming season.
Jacques Kallis will lend experience to the middle order, while the home grown players of Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla and Debabrata Das would also come in handy.
Laxmipathy Balaji, who was most economical last season, will add variety to the attack along with the part-timers in Rajat Bhatia and Shukla.
Besides Narine and Senanayake, the team also has Indian left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, who though would face competition for a place in the XI.
If the absence of the big names was not enough, the Daredevils would have to deal with the poor form of David Warner and Virender Sehwag as both of them would look to get into their rhythms.
West Indian big hitter Andre Russell will look to play the role of a finisher. Till Morkel joins the side, the pressure would be on the Indian trio of Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav and Irfan Pathan.

Teams from

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Debabrata Das, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Laxmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla (wk), Shami Ahmed, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan McLaren, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sachitra Senanayake, Sarabjit Ladda, Sunil Narine

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Virender Sehwag, Andre Russell, Arisht Singhvi, Ashish Nehra, CM Gautam, David Warner, Unmukt Chand, Venugopal Rao, Gulam Bodi, Irfan Pathan, Yogesh Nagar, Jeevan Mendis, Johan Botha, Kedar Jadhav, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha (wk), Pawan Negi, Roelof van-der Morwe, Royston Dias, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav, Ajit Agarkar. 

Kolkata Knight Riders v Auckland

Live On Star Cricket....

15 Oct 2012- Mon, 9:00 PM.

Teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders (From): Manvinder Bisla(w), Gautam Gambhir(c), Brendon McCullum, Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Rajat Bhatia, Brett Lee, Pradeep Sangwan, Sunil Narine, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Debabrata Das

Auckland (From): Martin Guptill, Lou Vincent, Azhar Mahmood, Anaru Kitchen, Colin de Grandhomme, Colin Munro, Gareth Hopkins(w/c), Ronnie Hira, Kyle Mills, Andre Adams, Michael Bates, Mitchell McClenaghan, Bruce Martin, Chris Martin, Bradley Cachopa













Watch out for

Azhar Mahmood: The experienced all-rounder has been Aces' star performer so far delivering with both bat and ball in the qualifiers. With the Aces coming up against the IPL champions, the team will be desperate for Azhar to prove himself again.

Gautam Gambhir: Having failed to deliver in the first game, the KKR skipper will want to ensure his form doesn't slip further. The southpaw has the skill to counter any attack and will want to take full toll against the Aces.

Final squads for CLT20 2012

Full Schedule of CLT20 2012

Here are the final 14 squads

Kolkata Knight Riders: Iqbal Abdullah, Shakib Al Hasan, L Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla, Gautam Gambhir (captain), Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Mohammed Shami, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary

Delhi Daredevils: Aavishkar Salvi (replacement for Varun Aaron), Ajit Agarkar, Unmukt Chand, Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Morne Morkel, Pawan Negi, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Kevin Pietersen, Venugopal Rao, Andre Russell, Virender Sehwag, Ross Taylor, David Warner, Umesh Yadav

Mumbai Indians: Mitchell Johnson, Dinesh Karthik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Richard Levi, Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Thisara Perera, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Smith, Sachin Tendulkar, Surya Kumar Yadav

Chennai Super Kings: R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (captain), Faf Du Plessis, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Hussey, Ravindra Jadeja, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, Anirudh Srikkanth, Murali Vijay, V. Yomahesh

Auckland Aces: Andre Adams, Michael Bates, Brad Cachopa, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Ronnie Hira, Gareth Hopkins (captain), Anaru Kitchen, Mitchell McClenaghan, Azhar Mahmood, Bruce Martin, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Colin Munro, Lou Vincent

Highveld Lions: Temba Bavuma, Gulam Bodi, Zander de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, Neil McKenzie, Pumelela Matshikwe, Chris Morris, Dirk Nannes, Ethan O'Reilly, Alviro Petersen, Aaron Phangiso, Dwaine Pretorius, Jean Symes, Sohail Tanveer, Thami Tsolekile

Sialkot Stallions: Qaisar Abbas, Sarfraz Ahmad, Shakeel Ansar, Umaid Asif, Muhammad Ayub, Bilawal Bhatti, Raza Hasan, Ali Khan, Shoaib Malik (captain), Imran Nazir, Faisal Naveed, Rana Naveed, Abdur Rehman, Haris Sohail, Shahid Yousaf

Uva Next: Fawwad Alam, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dilhara Fernando, Umar Gul, Charith Jayampathi, Chintaka Jayasinghe, Thilina Kandamby (captain), Andrew McDonald, Dilshan Munaweera, Jacob Oram, Seekuge Prasanna, Bhanuka Rajapakse, Sachitra Senanayake, Upul Tharanga, Sameera Zoysa

Sydney Sixers: Pat Cummins, Brad Haddin (captain), Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Michael Lumb, Nathan McCullum, Nic Maddinson
Ian Moran, Peter Nevill, Stephen O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Dominic Thornely, Shane Watson

Yorkshire: Moin Ashraf, Jonny Bairstow, Gary balance, Andrew Gale, Oliver Hannon-Daly, Dan Hodgson, Phil Jaques, Adam Lyth, David Miller, Steve Patterson, Azeem Rafiq, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ryan Sidebottom, Iain Wardlaw

Titans: Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Marchant de Lange, AB de Villiers, Paul Harris, Heino Kuhn, Eden Links, Ethy Mbhalati, Mangaliso Mosehle, Rowan Richards, Jacques Rudolph, Alfonso Thomas, Roelof van der Merwe, Martin van Jaarsveld (captain), David Wiese

Hampshire: James Adams, Shahid Afridi, Kabir Ali, Michael Bates, Daniel Briggs, Michael Carberry, Liam Dawson, Sean Ervine, David Griffiths, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Glenn Maxwell, Hamza Riazuddin, Bilal Shafayat, James Vince, Christopher Wood

Perth Scorchers: Tom Beaton, Michael Beer, Paul Collingwood, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ryan Duffield, Ben Edmondson, Herschelle Gibbs, Brad Hogg, Simon Katich, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Joe Mennie, Marcus North, Nathan Rimmington, Luke Ronchi

Trinidad & Tobago: Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Rayad Emrit, Shannon Gabriel, Sherwin Ganga, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Yannick Ottley, William Perkins, Denesh Ramdin (captain), Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons, Navin Stewart.

Debabrata Das Replaces Shukla in Knight Riders Squad

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) replaced all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla with batsman Debabrata Das for the Champions League T20 tournament, which will be held in South Africa from Tuesday.
Laxmi has decided to give the tournament a miss due to personal problems. "My father is not keeping well… He is suffering from pneumonia. He is critical and has been hospitalised for the last 20 days…"
"I played for Bengal in the Challenger Trophy because it was happening in the country. For Champions League, I have to travel to South Africa and will have to be outside the country for 20 days. I cannot afford to stay away from him for so many days."
Laxmi said he was disappointed to miss the tournament. "I'm really sad that I could not play for KKR in the CLT20. That too, in a year in which we won the IPL. Even if I travel to South Africa, the thought of my father will always be in the back of my mind and will hamper my game."

The squad
Gautam Gambhir (captain), Iqbal Abdullah, Shakib al Hasan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Rajat Bhatia, Manvinder Bisla (wk), Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Brendon McCullum (wk), Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das, Mohammed Shami, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary.