Mumbai bat, no Narine for KKR

Times Now tweets: "Major earthquake measuring 6.8 on Richter scale hits Northeast: National Centre for Seismology (PTI)."

Oh, hello! Where did this come from? Nah, nah! No more bad news from Kolkata. Just when I was about to pick my players for the fantasy league, our correspondent Kritika Naidu shoots a terrible news: "Tremors felt in Kolkata press box." Hope it ain't serious. Stick around for further updates

For Kolkata it's the swap of Yadavs - Kuldeep in for Umesh.

So here are the changes, for Mumbai: IN - Southee, Suchith, Parthiv Patel. OUT - Lendl Simmons, Shreyas Gopal and Vinay Kumar.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Parthiv Patel(w), Jos Buttler, Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Suchith, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee, Jasprit Bumrah

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir(c), Robin Uthappa(w), Manish Pandey, Colin Munro, Yusuf Pathan, Suryakumar Yadav, Andre Russell, John Hastings, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Brad Hogg

Gambhir: "We got a pretty balanced side. we are playing 3 spinners today and hopefully we will bat well today. We have got only one change today. Kuldeep comes in place of Umesh Yadav. Kuldeep did well in the past and let's see what he can do today."

Rohit: "We are gonna bowl first. We felt the wicket is not gonna change must. There might be dew factor as well. Feels good coming here. It's been always a happy hunting ground. As a team it is important to get a win. We got a great opportunity to play in front of Calcutta crowd. Simmons is injured. Tim Southee in place of Vinay Kumar. Suchith comes in for Shreyas Gopal."

Mumbai Indians have won the toss and have opted to field

PITCH-buzz: If a few reports are to be believed, spinners should enjoy bowling on this track. Could be a 150-160 track. "Win toss and bowl first" pitch to be precise

* MI have a lead of 11-5 over KKR in head-to-head matches in IPL. Till 2013, MI had a 10-2 lead but KKR has a 3-1 advantage in the last two seasons.

* Yusuf Pathan will be playing his 200th T20 - fourth Indian after Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni & Rohit Sharma. He has also hit 199 sixes so far in his T20 career.

* Rohit Sharma averages 61 and strikes at 152 per 100 balls in his seven IPL matches for MI at Eden Gardens with a hundred and two fifties.

* Sunil Narine went wicket less in five out of his last six IPL matches at the Eden Gardens.

* Rohit Sharma needs three more sixes to reach 150 sixes in IPL - third player after Chris Gayle (230) and Suresh Raina (152).

* Harbhajan Singh & Piyush Chawla both have 111 wickets in 112 IPL matches each - second most for an Indian player after Amit Mishra's 112 wickets.

Sunil Narine who missed out in the last game (went to perform last rites for his father) is back but will they vamp the winning combo? The news from the grapevine is that Lendl Simmons might not play this game with Parthiv Patel coming in at the expense of Vinay Kumar. So, Corey Anderson should be a straight swap for Simmons. Kieron Pollard who hasn't bowled since 22 November 2015 is deemed fit to bowl. Harbhajan Singh and Eden Gardens are best friends (assuming you know the history). Will his good run-of-form continue? Mind you! Mumbai Indians are renowned as slow-starters, but who knows a loss here might come to haunt them later. KKR will start as firm favourites but this contest will surely be a bonzer. Before we head to the toss, here's our stat-superman Deepu Narayanan with his usual mind-boggling numbers...

Both teams had a contrasting first game. Mumbai Indians were humbled in their own backyard by the newcomers of IPL - Pune Supergiants. Delhi Daredevils revamped the squad, changed the skipper and the addition of Carlos Brathwaite seemed too imposing. Not for KKR though. Scrambled the visitors with spin and put DD in quicksand as Russell, Hogg, and Chawla stomped them with some canny bowling. KKR, however, will be mindful regarding Mumbai Indians and Rohit Sharma, in particular, who both have a very good track record at the Eden Gardens.