Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 26 : As Punjab Kings (PBKS) takes on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Eden Gardens, a key concern will be the recent slump in skipper Shreyas Iyer's form.
PBKS will face KKR at Eden Gardens on Saturday. PBKS is fifth in the points table with five wins and three losses, giving them 10 points. On the other hand, KKR is struggling, having won just three of their eight matches and standing in seventh.
Shreyas Iyer has been PBKS's leading run-scorer, having made 263 runs in eight innings at an average of 43.83 and a strike rate of 185.21, with the best score of 97*. He has smacked 17 fours and 20 sixes this season in 142 balls, as per ESPNCricinfo.
Beneath these stats lies some inconsistency. After starting the tournament with scores of 97* against Gujarat Titans (GT) and 52* against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), he has crossed the 20-run mark only once in the next six innings.
After the LSG game, Iyer's scores are: 10, 9, 82, 0, 7, 6. This translates to 114 runs in six innings at an average of 19 and a strike rate of over 162.
Iyer is having a fine run away from home, with scores of 97*, 52*, 82 (against Sunrisers Hyderabad) at Uppal Stadium and seven against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at M Chinnaswamy Stadium). He averages 119 away from home with three fifties.
However, at Mullanpur so far, he has scored 10, 9, 0, 6, scoring 25 runs in four innings at an average of 6.25.
Will this game offer Iyer enough on the pitch to continue his red-hot form in away-from-home matches? Only time will tell.
Squads:
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Chetan Sakariya, Mayank Markande
Punjab Kings Squad: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer(c), Josh Inglis(w), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Praveen Dubey, Glenn Maxwell, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Aaron Hardie, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kuldeep Sen, Harnoor Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Musheer Khan, Pyla Avinash.