Predicted Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 11 for their first IPL 2022 match

KKR Playing 11: After falling short by a whisker last season, 2021 runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will surely have their hopes high for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. In a really bold move, KKR recently announced their latest recruit Shreyas Iyer who was bought in the mega auction for a whopping budget of INR 12.25 Crore, as their captain for IPL 2022. Ahead of the IPL 2022 auction, Kolkata Knight Riders retained the likes of Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy.

Predicted KKR Playing 11 for their first IPL 2022 match

KKR Playing 11 (likely)
1. Venkatesh Iyer
2. Nitish Rana
3. Shreyas Iyer (C)
4. Sam Billings
5. Andre Russell
6. Sheldon Jackson (WK)
7. Sunil Narine
8. Shivam Mavi
9. Tim Southee
10. Varun Chakravarthy
11. Umesh Yadav

Last year’s finalists, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will once again go up against each other in the first match of Indian Premier League 2022 season on 26 March at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. In a huge blow for KKR, the Aussie duo of Aaron Finch and PAT Cummins will not be available for the first week of the competition. The pair of Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana will be the two openers in the KKR playing 11 for the game against CSK. The middle-order batting department will comprise of skipper Shreyas Iyer, Sam Billings, Andre Russell and Sheldon Jackson.

The duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine will be their frontline spinners while Rana can serve as the part-time option. In the absence of Cummins, the trio of Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav and Shivam Mavi will form part of the pace bowling contingent for the two-time IPL champions.

KKR 2022 Squad: Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Shreyas Iyer (C), Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Sam Billings, Aaron Finch, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan.

IPL 2022 in Focus
Most Runs in IPL	Hat trick in IPL
Most Wickets in IPL	Highest score in IPL
Highest Strike Rate in IPL	Highest partnership in IPL
Most centuries in IPL	Highest paid player in IPL
Most sixes in IPL	Best bowling figures in IPL

CSK vs KKR: Top 3 Players to Watch out for in Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI

1. Shreyas Iyer Stats in IPL

Kolkata Knight Riders newly appointed skipper Shreyas Iyer is coming into this tournament on the back of some remarkable performance at the international level. Shreyas Iyer scored three amazing half-centuries in all of the T20Is against Sri Lanka at home recently.

Matches	Runs	50s	IPL 2021 Performance	Recent Form
87	2375	16	175 runs (8 Games)	67, 92, 27, 73, 74, 57*

2. Venkatesh Iyer Stats in IPL

For the Kolkata Knight Riders, Venkatesh Iyer delivered a breakthrough performance in the second half of the previous competition. While playing in just 10 matches, Venkatesh Iyer notched up a wonderful tally of 370 runs at an impressive strike-rate of 128.47.

Matches	Runs	Strike-Rate	Recent Form
10	370	128.47	5, 2/36, 35* & 2/23, 33

3. Andre Russell Stats in IPL

Kolkata Knight Riders big-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell has been an impactful player over the years in the IPL both with the bat and ball. Andre Russell smacked close to 200 runs and also took as many as 11 wickets in the previous edition of the Indian Premier League.