IPL 10: Upbeat Pune Supergiant face stern test against KKR

Rising Pune Supergiant will face a tough challenge when they take on two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here today evening.

Both teams are in the upper-half of the eight-team points table.

Kolkata are currently standing at the second spot with 10 points, having won five of the seven games they have played so far.

Pune, on the other hand, are just two places behind KKR at the fourth spot with four victories in seven matches.

The Steve Smith-led RPS will hope to cash in on three successive home games after beating table-toppers Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium.

KKR, on the other hand, will have to battle a taxing schedule over the next eight days, with the Gautam Gambhir-led side playing four games, home and away, during this phase.

The squads are as follows:

Rising Pune Supergiant: Steve Smith (Capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Dan Christian, Lockie Ferguson, Imran Tahir, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Washington Sundar, Milind Tandon, Manoj Tiwary, Adam Zampa, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishwar Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, Shardul Thakur.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (Capt), Darren Bravo, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter Nile, Colin de Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh, Shaikb-Al-Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Woakes, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Uthappa and Umesh Yadav.