IPL 2024 KKR vs SRH Preview - Hey big spenders!

Key match stats

Pitch Stats – IPL records at Eden Gardens

Stats from the 10 most recent IPL matches played at Eden Gardens

Team form KKR vs SRH

Recent meetings: IPL 2023 - SRH won by 23 runs, KKR won by 5 runs

Weather

General Forecast: Dry and clear
Chance of dew: Moderate to High

Preview KKR vs SRH

Match number 3 of IPL 2024 sees a meeting between the 2 franchises who made record bids to bring in Aussie quicks in this year's auction. SRH's paid a massive amount to acquire the services of their new captain Pat Cummins and that sum was quickly gazumped by KKR who shelled out a whopping 24.75 Crore to bring his international teammate Mitchel Starc.

Both sides will have different personnel from last season, in particular SRH who once again had to do a significant amount of business in the auction to overcome their weaknesses. There is a good chance that alongside Cummins we will see his fellow Aussie Travis Head and Sri Lankan wrist-spinner Hasaranga make their Sunrisers debuts.

Beyond the onfield changes, this match also sees Dan Vettori take the reigns as Sunrisers Head Coach for the first time. What it does mean is that SRH have now had 4 coaches in the last 4 years and the experienced Kiwi will be hoping to last a bit longer in the role than his recent predecessors.

KKR should be able to welcome Shreyas Iyer back into the team to help stabilise what was otherwise an inconsistent top order. The one player who did show a bit more form in the later part of 2023 was Jason Roy but he has since pulled out of the 2024 tournament due to personal reasons and been replaced by Phil Salt a player who appears to have usurped Roy in the England white ball set-up and is currently ranked as the number 2 T20 batsman by the ICC.

Both sides will be desperate to make a winning start to the season and gain some much needed early momentum. For SRH, that is doubly important not only because of all the changes in personnel and leadership they've made again but also when you consider that their next 3 matches in the IPL are against the sides who finished in the top 3 last year (CSK, GT and MI).

As far as the pitch is concerned, Eden Gardens saw some really big scores last season as the graphic above suggests. The average first innings score here was higher than at any other venue whilst teams also managed to strike a 6 once every 2 overs on average with that big hitting being particularly apparent towards the end of the innings.

Stat	Figure	Rank vs other IPL stadiums
Average first innings score	198	1st
Balls per 6 hit	12	1st
Average death overs score	60	1st

IPL records at Eden Gardens vs other stadiums in the last 10 matches played

It has been humid with some thunder storms around the Bay of Bengal recently. At the time of writing, the forecast for Saturday looks ok but the moisture in the air could lead to some dew forming later the evening.

Dew could be an important factor for either side but KKR in particular were heavily reliant on their slow bowlers in IPL 2023, often playing 3 frontline spinners. If you're picking a fantasy team or having a little bet on this match then it's certainly worth keeping an eye on the forecast and the conditions on the day as we approach this match.

KKR v SRH head to head

SRH bowling vs KKR batting

As is so often the case with the Sunrisers, so much seems to rest on the slight shoulders of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Last season, he was the only SRH player to feature in all 14 IPL matches for the franchise. While others were brought in and out, he remained the first name on the team sheet. They'll need him again this season and the good news is he has a very good head to head record against KKR's likely top order players

Bhuvi combined T20 head to head record vs Salt, Shreyas and Gurbaz

Bhuvi also has a strike rate of a wicket once every 3 overs here at Eden Gardens while a couple of SRH's spin options have also enjoyed the conditions here. But for the concern that dew could prove a factor in the 2nd innings of this match, we did see multiple games in Kolkata last year where turn was on offer.

Markande and Washington combined T20 records at Eden Gardens

While SRH look to have decent options in the powerplay and middle overs where they could have concerns throughout the tournament are at the death. Those weaknesses could well be exploited at this venue as the stats above show and against this KKR side who have a couple of powerful finishers in Rinku Singh and Andre Russell.

KKR finishers T20 head to head vs SRH pace bowlers

KKR bowling vs SRH batting

I'm very interested to see how SRH will line-up for their first match of the new season. There was a huge amount of chopping and changing of both players and their positions/roles in IPL 2023 so they'll be keen to find a successful formula early this season.

The big match-up at the top of the order is likely to be Starc vs Head. Incredibly the pair have never faced each other in T20 cricket before with both players appearances in the Big Bash being limited by their international duties.

Type of bowling	Average	Strike rate
Right-arm fast medium	34.1	149.0
Left-arm fast medium	25.8	141.8
Right-arm finger spin	22.0	97.5
Left-arm finger spin	24.5	143.3
Right-arm wrist spin	20.8	102.0
Left-arm wrist spin	46.0	137.3

Travis Head T20 stats vs type of bowler

We know that Head's role in the side will be to go after pace bowling during the powerplay and he's shown in all formats over the last couple of years that when the ball is pitched up he'll have a go at it which should make the battle against Starc who will look to swing the new ball even more intriguing.

Where Head looks likely to struggle is against slower bowling and KKR will be keen to test him early in that regard. One of KKR's more successful options in the powerplay last season was Varun Chakaravarthy who picked up 5 wickets during the 16 overs he bowled in that phase of the game.

Varun T20 bowling record at Eden Gardens

More generally, Chakaravarthy enjoyed his most successful IPL season in 2023, taking 20 wickets in total including 11 at Eden Gardens where he looked effective despite the high scoring which was a feature of most games here. He took figures of 1 for 20 the last time these 2 sides met at this venue.

Tripathi and Agarwal combined T20 head to head vs Dre Russell

KKR will also be tempted to get Andre Russell into the attack early on given his record against a couple SRH's top order. Equally, using him for a short ball attack against Head could prove an effective option if there is a longer boundary to play with. The pressing question as we enter any IPL is always how much bowling will the Big Jamaican's body actually stand up to? Given that KKR's pace attack outside of Starc has limited experience at this level there could be times when they need him to step up this season.

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All stats used in this blog are from my own databases which are freely accessible below
IPL player head to head records
IPL player records by stadium
IPL stadium records.
Images are my own with the exception of player profiles and highlights within GIFs which are not intended to infringe copyright- read full disclaimer. Background images are used under a creative commons license or otherwise royalty free.