Forty-eight hours after the battle of ‘Kings’ at the Brabourne Stadium, a ‘battle royal’ takes place at the Wankhede Stadium when an inform Rajasthan Royals takes on Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday.
Much against the trend seen in this edition of the Indian Premier League, Royals posted two wins by defending targets, against former champions Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians. This underlines Royals’ belief in the quality of its resources.
In contrast, the Challengers has gone with the tide. Lost the toss and the match against Punjab Kings by five wickets and won the toss and the game against Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets.
Notably for the Royals, except the Kiwi Trent Boult, all bowling options are home-grown internationals - Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, R. Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. With Jos Buttler making his presence felt with a 100 against Mumbai Indians, and the duo of Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmeyer contributing, the failure of Devdutt Paddikkal was lost in the background.
Overall, going by the balance of the teams, Royals is the early favourite to go all the way.
An unconvincing Challengers’ lone win in two matches came after its bowlers set it up in a low-scoring encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Great comeback
It was indeed a great comeback for the bowlers after looking so ineffective in the defence of 205 in the opener against Punjab Kings. Against the Royals, the Challengers’ will have to raise the bar a few notches to pose a threat.
Teams (from):
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Josh Hazlewood, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Rajat Patidar, Siddharth Kaul.
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Shubham Garwal, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldip Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Tejas Baroka, Anunay Singh, KC Kariappa, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Rassie Van der Dussen, Nathan Coulter Nile, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Karun Nair, Obed McCoy, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Match starts at 7.30 p.m.
