Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted XI vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2023: Will Lockie Ferguson Replace Tim Southee?

Kolkata Knight Riders will be going up against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their next IPL 2023 match on Thursday at the Eden Gardens. The Nitish Rana-led side will be coming to this clash after facing a defeat by 7 runs (DLS method) against Punjab Kings. On the other hand, RCB had a memorable start to their campaign as they registered a thumping eight-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians. As they were already dealing with the blow of losing their regular Shreyas Iyer due to injury, KKR got hit by the news of Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan pulling out of the tournament. Explosive batter Jason Roy has been named as his replacement.

During the first match, KKR's senior bowlers Sunil Narine and Tim Southee proved to be expensive as despite taking wickets they conceded 40 and 54 runs respectively in their spells. There are chances that the team might go with Lockie Ferguson in Southee's place.

'Accidental' skipper Rana, who has experience of leading Delhi in white-ball cricket, has a big task ahead of him as the team desperately seeks some solace in its den.

The buzz is that KKR's owner Shah Rukh Khan will be in the house when they return there after 1,438 days. They last played at Eden Gardens on April 28, 2019 -- a 34-run win over Mumbai Indians before COVID-19 hit the world. The excitement will be at an all-time high for both teams, with crowd-puller Virat Kohli in the visitors' dug out.

KKR looked a shadow of their past in their season-opener, which was interrupted by a floodlight glitch before the skies opened up.

Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted XI vs Royal Challengers Bangalore:

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mandeep Singh, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson,