Jos Buttler needs no reminding of his unfinished business with R. Ashwin when Rajasthan Royals faces Kings XI Punjab here on Tuesday.
In the backdrop of the ‘Mankading’ episode, involving the two cricketers at Jaipur where the teams met in their campaign opener, Royals may be expected to get back hard.
That evening, Buttler was in full flow before the unusual mode of dismissal became the talking-point of the cricketing world. Since then, Ashwin, too, must be waiting to scalp Buttler, without offering an explanation!
Better placed
Comparatively, Kings XI is better placed. However, the team has lost its last two encounters, mainly due to the bowlers not getting their act right.
Royals, struggling to perform to potential, just about managed to cross the line against Mumbai Indians over the weekend. The team, more often than not, has tossed away dominant positions this season.
Interestingly, there will also be a battle, within the bigger battle, to see which in-form wicketkeeper-opener — K.L. Rahul or Buttler — comes out stronger.
Kings XI has reasons to be wary of Royals’ formidable batting. Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Sanju Samson and Ben Stokes are all capable of adding to Kings’ bowling woes.
On the batting front, notwithstanding Rahul, Chris Gayle and Mayank Aggarwal’s form, Kings’ concerns are the middle-order’s non-performance the absence of a sixth bowling option.
Kings could get into serious trouble should the top-order fail, for a change.
Effectively, Royals have the resources to get past Kings. However, its vulnerability has come to the fore too often. That in turn has kept the opposing teams hopeful till the end.
Dew factor
The toss will again be important as batting second seems to be an integral part of the winning formula here. Should dew come into play, Royals could be seriously tested.
Also, like Virat Kohli mentioned on Saturday, if the bowlers manage to bowl dot balls to Gayle, the team’s run-rate falls dramatically. This fact was well illustrated when Royal Challengers Bangalore bowled 44 dot balls to Gayle. This is sure to be part of Royals’ plans, too.
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Ashton Turner, Ish Sodhi, Oshane Thomas, Liam Livingstone, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Sanju Samson (WK), Shubham Ranjane, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Sudhesan Midhun, Jaydev Unadkat, Prashant Chopra, Mahipal Lomror, Aryaman Birla, Riyan Parag, Dhawal Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Varun Aaron, Shashank Singh, Manan Vohra, Rahul Tripathi.
Kings XI Punjab: Lokesh Rahul (WK), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Andrew Tye, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Karun Nair, Moises Henriques, Varun Chakravarthi, Harpreet Brar, Simran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Hardus Viljoen, Ankit Rajpoot, Arshdeep Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Agnivesh Ayachi.
Match starts at 8 pm.
