IPL 2024: Predicting 3 players who could pick up the most wickets in today's KKR vs SRH 1st Qualifier

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH); if this was a league-stage match at either the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad or at the Eden Gardens, you could have guaranteed a high-scoring thriller.

These two are not just the best teams in IPL 2024 but by far the best batting sides with the two highest boundary percentages so far -- 24.98 and 23.44, respectively.

However, this is the first Qualifier, one that decides who reaches the final and who plays the knock-out. It's been ages since these two teams last played this clash. And it's not on a flat wicket but at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which offered purchase for both pacers and spinners throughout the season

Below, we have predicted three bowlers who can revel in these conditions the most to emerge as the top wicket-takers in the clash:

#3 Sunil Narine

You just can't exclude KKR's lead spinner Sunil Narine from the list. In what many envisaged would be his last season before the start of IPL 2024, Narine is the only bowler to have played every match and picked at least a wicket in each. Whether or not there's help available in the pitch, he has shone through in middle-overs.

Continuing that streak against SRH's clinical hitters might be a difficult task but Narine would love to face a lineup dependent on its left-handers. And he has done it before in Ahmedabad.

The last time he played at the venue, he took three wickets for 33 runs against Gujarat Titans (GT), taking his overall tally here to seven wickets at an average of 17.

#2 Bhuvneshwar Kumar

If there's one bowler you can pick this season to get you wickets with both swing in the powerplay and slower ones at the death, it'd be SRH pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The veteran right-arm quick is in excellent form in IPL 2024, with seven wickets in the last five matches, having overcome a lean early phase.

His numbers in Ahmedabad are mind-blowing - nine wickets in three games at an average of 7.89, including a five-wicket haul against GT in 2023. He has great numbers against KKR too - the team he has faced the most in IPL - 32 wickets from 28 matches at an average of 25.59 and a strike rate of 19.50.

He has troubled the likes of Andre Russell and Narine before and would be quite encouraged by the fact that KKR no longer have Phil Salt available at the top of the order to put pressure on the swing bowlers.

KKR have been vulnerable to top-order collapses before and Bhuvneshwar might lead one now.

#1 Varun Chakaravarthy

Had two of KKR's matches not been washed out, Varun Chakaravarthy would have been donning the Purple Cap already, despite not starting IPL 2024 well.

With 10 wickets in the last four matches, he's one of the most in-form bowlers coming into the playoffs. As pitches have started to turn across the country, his variations have become quite arduous for batters to read and you can expect the same for SRH, especially if Ahmedabad offers even a hint of turn to the bowlers.

He has eight wickets from nine games so far against SRH in the IPL. If he gets support from the other end, this could be the game Chakarvarthy adds a big portion to the tally and extends his best foot towards the Purple Cap.