"Have to fire or else it will be difficult"- Aakash Chopra on Nitish Rana and Andre Russell ahead of GT vs KKR in IPL 2023

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra is a bit worried about the inconsistent batting performance of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of their clash with Gujarat Titans on Saturday. Although KKR won their previous game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), their batting struggled once again, with the score being 89/5 at one point.

Chopra feels there is enough quality in the pace attack of the Titans to expose the weaknesses in the KKR batting. For the visitors to avoid this, the former cricketer wants senior players like Andre Russell and Nitish Rana to fire all cylinders.

In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Aakash Chopra had to say about KKR's batting:

"KKR have issues in their batting. Yes Gurbaz scored a fifty and Rinku Singh scored some good runs, but their two main batters in Nitish Rana and Andre Russell haven't fired so far. They have to fire in today's game or else it will be difficult against this opposition who has a great bowling attack."

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"Spin can play a huge role": Aakash Chopra on GT vs KKR game

Aakash Chopra feels that the quality spinners in both the KKR as well as the GT ranks may enjoy the afternoon conditions in Ahmedabad. While Kolkata's spin-trio were impressive against RCB, the hosts also have quality spin backups alongside Rashid Khan, and the battle of the spinners could be intriguing.

On this, Chopra stated:

"It's a day game in Gujarat so I expect the surface to be good for batting but also support a bit of spin. KKR have quality spinners in Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Suyash Sharma. GT have Rashid and they can also play Jayant or Sai Kishore. So spin can play a huge role."

Both GT and KKR are coming off wins in their previous games and it could be a really promising encounter.