Kolkata Knight Riders had a clinical start to their IPL campaign on Sunday. Their top-order led by Nitish Rana laid the platform for setting up a formidable total and then their bowlers put up a disciplined show to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad.

On Tuesday, when the Knight Riders face Mumbai Indians in Chennai, their poor record against Rohit Sharma’s men is sure to haunt them. Knight Riders have lost 21 out of the 27 matches against them and will hope for another superlative performance from their batsmen in an effort to turn the tide. In the last four years, KKR have won just once and lost on nine occasions.

Besides a solid top-order, Knight Riders have a middle-order comprising Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell and Shakib-al Hasan, who can always provide the momentum that is needed in the later half of the innings. No wonder, Mumbai Indians’ bowling unit of Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and Marco Jansen will face a stern test once again after losing the opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

It is likely that Mumbai Indians will stick with Rohit and Chris Lynn as openers after the Australian’s quickfire 49 in the opener.

Quinton de Kock is out of quarantine and available for selection though. Rohit no doubt has a special liking for the Knight Riders bowlers having scored the most runs against them in the IPL — 939 runs.

While Mumbai Indians haven’t won their season opener since 2013, they have always bounced back in their second match in four of the last five seasons — three of those wins were against Knight Riders.

The MA Chidambaram Stadium remains one of the few IPL grounds that favours the side batting first — 36 of the 59 matches been won by the team batting first.

Mumbai Indians’ Chris Lynn PTI

Hardik fitness

Hardik Pandya did not bowl in the opener because of his workload management, and Kieron Pollard will be their sixth bowling option, according to director of cricket operations Zaheer Khan.

“Hardik as a whole package is of great value,” Zaheer said on the eve of their clash against Knight Riders. “It was a workload related thing in the previous game... He bowled in the India-England series, in the last ODI he bowled about nine overs, and that’s why in consultation with the physios, we had to take that approach.

“There was a little bit of a shoulder concern. I don’t think it’s worrisome, you will very soon see him bowl. For the timelines, you’ll have to ask the physio but in terms of Hardik the bowler coming in this tournament, we are very confident that he will be chipping in.”

Hardik played as a specialist batsman in IPL 2020 following a lower back surgery and returned to bowling in the limited overs series against England recently.

“Pollard is our sixth bowling option,” Zaheer said. “He’s an experienced campaigner here so he’s definitely going to be our sixth bowling option. And whenever Hardik is available, he’s going to be a bowling option as well. We’re not very concerned in that department. You have to adapt and adjust. This year it’s a different format, so we’ll look to have that flexibility around because of not being able to play at the home ground.”

Zaheer didn’t forget to heap praise on wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan. “Ishan is looking assured now. When you are growing as a cricketer, when you are trying to make that impact at the highest level, you know you have that tipping point and with Ishan last year was that tipping point when he played that knock against RCB (99 off 58 balls),” explained Zaheer.

“He just flourished from there and he is in the same zone and going about doing his business, making sure he is continuing with those processes and spending enough time in the nets and trying to better himself,” the former India pacer said.