Ahead of all their games so far this season, the Kolkata Knight Riders players have had a pep talk from Gautam Gambhir at the end of the game-eve training sessions. Given their current position in the standings, it seems the pep talk has worked its magic for the second-placed Knights.

However, on Tuesday at Eden Gardens, they will be coming across an opposition which has got most things correct so far in the competition and, importantly, held their nerves to prevail in pressure situations barring the defeat to Gujarat Titans, wh­ere just one bad over cost them the game.

For sure Rajasthan Royals, having most of their bases covered, will be a tough nut to crack for the Knights, who have to return to the field after just a day’s gap following their emphatic win over Lucknow Super Giants.

The Knights didn’t have any practice session on Monday, the eve of their clash against the Royals, as they took the day off. But one assumes that there would be the pre-match team meeting, where Gambhir would surely talk about the strategies needed to tackle the table-toppers.

A win for Shreyas Iyer and Co. will help them leapfrog the Royals to the top position with a better net run rate. Needless to say, it would also boost their confidence as the tournament nears the halfway stage.

Combination-wise, it’s unlikely that the Knights will tinker with the XI that br­ushed Lucknow aside last Su­nday, unless someone sustains a niggle or anything of that sort before the game.

Keeper and opener Phil Salt is in good form, but his partner Sunil Narine was not among runs in the last game. Against a high-scoring side like the Royals, the Knights would hope for an explosive start from Salt and Narine to stay a step ahead.

To talk of the pitch, a fresh surface will be used and it is expected to aid the strokemakers, while also having some purchase for the bowlers.

For the Royals, they do need Jos Buttler — who mis­sed the previous game against Punjab Kings due to a niggle along with Ravichandran Ashwin — at the top. The good news for the visitors is that Buttler, with his right knee strapped, batted at nets for quite some time on Monday and so did Ashwin, bowling a bit as well.

“We don’t have any pre-imposed planning, nor are we into too much of thinking. We’re just looking at controlling what we can control, like our training, planning and practice. We want our players to remain relaxed on
the day and perform,” Siddhartha Lahiri, the Royals support coach and head of their academy coaching, told The Telegraph.

The Royals are also backing Yashasvi Jaiswal, even though he hasn’t been able to convert starts. “He takes the very high-risk option when it comes to T20 cricket, which is his role in the team. We don’t want him to change his approach at all. So, he’s doing all the right things and there’s no separate advice for him,” Lahiri stated.