Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who are struggling to find rhythm, can make major changes in their playing eleven to achieve their first win of the season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Lucknow Super Giants here on Thursday. It will not be easy for KKR to make a comeback as it will face a fast bowler like Mohammed Shami, who took two wickets for nine runs in four overs in the last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He had dismissed Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head in consecutive overs. Shami, who plays for Bengal in domestic cricket, is well aware of the conditions here. He is adept at straight seam bowling and swinging the ball and will try to take full advantage of the conditions at Eden Gardens.

KKR has not won three matches yet. The pitch here can be helpful for fast bowlers. In the last match which was abandoned due to rain, Punjab Kings’ Australian fast bowler Xavier Bartlett showed how effective straight seam bowling can be on a pitch with more grass. He destroyed KKR’s top order by dismissing Finn Allen and Cameron Green within three balls.

KKR was lucky that this match was canceled due to rain. With this he also opened his account in the marks table. Due to the formation of low pressure from the Gangetic region of West Bengal to the Gulf of Mannar, it has been raining continuously for the last three days. There is a possibility of rain late Wednesday night and Thursday morning. However, since the match starts at 7:30 pm, it is not likely to have much impact. Shami will prove to be a big threat for KKR in the powerplay.

Apart from them, it will not be easy to face fast bowler Prince Yadav and mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi. LSG’s strength is their bowling well in the powerplay. He had performed brilliantly in the powerplay against both Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. KKR has so far tried the opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Finn Allen which has not been able to achieve the expected success. He can try the New Zealand pair of Allen and Tim Seifert in this match.

Another New Zealand player Rachin Ravindra is also a contender for a place in the middle order. This will also give KKR an additional option of spin. KKR’s biggest worry has been the poor performance of Sunil Narine (1 for 69 runs in eight overs) and Indian spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who has not taken a single wicket so far. Both these players were not included in the team in the last match against Punjab Kings due to being unwell. Both of them may return to the playing eleven while mystery spinner Daksh Kamra may also get a chance.

Another matter of concern for KKR is the failure of Cameron Green, whom it bought for Rs 25.20 crore. He is playing only as a batsman but so far he has been able to score only 18, two and four runs in three matches. As far as LSG is concerned, their team will be full of confidence after registering a win in the last match.

Its captain Rishabh Pant, batting at number three, had scored unbeaten 68 runs in the last match and he will leave no stone unturned to continue his form. Apart from Pant, the top three in the LSG team also include Australia captain Mitchell Marsh and South Africa’s Aiden Markram. He will try to dominate the KKR bowlers from the beginning.

The teams are as follows:

KKR: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakraborty, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Mathisha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Blessing Muzarabani, Saurabh Dubey and Navdeep Saini.

LSG: Rishabh Pant (captain), Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Himmat Singh, Matthew Bretzke, Mukul Chaudhary, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Ayush Badoni, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, M Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav, Arjun Tendulkar, Enrique Norcia, Naman Tiwari, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan.

Match start time: 7.30 pm.