Runners up of 2018 Sunrisers Hyderabad will begin their Indian Premier League campaign at the Eden Gardens when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders on March 24. 

When and where to watch the match on TV, online

The IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will start at 4 pm local time and 10:30 am GMT.

Star Sports 1 & HD1 (English) and Star Sports 3 & HD3 (Hindi) will provide live television coverage of the match. The worldwide live stream will be available on Hotstar.

KKR vs SRH preview 

Both teams punched above their respective weights under the leadership of two very similar type of men - quiet, soft-spoken and inspiring leaders who talked their talk with massive performances. For KKR, it was Dinesh Karthik and for SRH, it was Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson.

KKR, David Warner, SRH, IPL 2017, playoffs
Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla and Gautam Gambhir celebrate the wicket of David Warner, May 17, 2017IANS

Both teams look similar in terms of their composition ahead of their opening encounter of IPL 2019. Last season, the Kolkata outfit had a very good starting XI but lacked backup options and the franchise tried to address that issue by buying a few players in the auction. One of them was Carlos Brathwaite, who will forever be associated with Eden Gardens. The current Windies T20 skipper hit four consecutive sixes off Ben Stokes in the last over of the 2016 T20 World Cup final at the same venue to dramatically win the tournament for his nation. 

But the Shah Rukh Khan-owned side received three massive injury jolts in the pace bowling department with Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and South African international Anrich Nortje all being ruled out of the entire tournament. Thus, the pace department is a major weak spot for the team which SRH will be very keen on exploiting. 

One department both teams will not be worried about is that of the all-rounders. The two teams are stacked with quality on that front as KKR boast of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine while SRH has former Knight Shakib Al Hasan and Vijay Shankar. Even Rashid Khan has shown that he can wield his willow to good effect in the lower order. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad, David Warner, Kolkata Knight Riders, SRH vs KKR, IPl 2017 Eliminator
David Warner will be back in SRH colours for the first time in two years.IANS

KKR will be wary of the Afghanistan international as he was the difference between the two sides when they last met. KKR looked in control of the qualifier against SRH when Rashid completely changed the game, first with a late flurry of boundaries scoring 34 runs off 10 balls and then with the ball as he dismissed Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn and Russell. 

SRH will be without captain Williamson for this clash as he is still recovering from a grade one tear to his left pectoral minor muscle. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be leading the side in his absence. 

Probable XIs

KKR: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (C) (WK), Andre Russell, Lockie Ferguson, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna 

Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR captain Dinesh Karthik has a World Cup berth to book.IANS

SRH: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Vijay Shankar, Shakib Al Hasan, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (C), Siddharth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed

Global TV listings

Subcontinent Star Sports
UK Star Gold
Australia Fox Sports
South Africa SuperSport
Canada Willow TV
USA Willow TV
Caribbean SportsMax
Bangladesh Channel 9
New Zealand Sky Sports
Afghanistan Lemar TV