The hugely popular franchise has gone for a slight name change this season, but there has not been much of a change when it comes to the tradition of disappointing its fans, in the early stage of this IPL. Royal Challengers Bengaluru must be desperate to give their loyal supporters something to cheer about and put their campaign back on track when it takes on a confident Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on April 5.
Sanju Samson’s men have won all their three games so far. That they have done it without their formidable opening duo of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal making much of a contribution says a lot about the way they have performed thus far.
The captain himself has had a couple of disappointing knocks after his unbeaten 82 against Lucknow Super Giants in the opening match. But Riyan Parag’s consistency has made up for the lack of runs at the top of the order.
Promoted to No. 4, he has been a revelation with scores of 43, 54 n.o. and 84 n.o. The bowling attack, in the form of Trent Boult, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal, R. Ashwin and Avesh Khan, has been sharp, too.
The visitors, on the other hand, have to come up with improved shows with both bat and ball. Virat Kohli has scored 203 runs, with a couple of fifties, but the other batters, including skipper Faf du Plessis, need to deliver. More is also expected from the bowlers, especially the likes of Mohammed Siraj.
Teams (from):
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Keshav Maharaj, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Abid Mushtaq, Nandre Burger.
Match starts at 7.30 PM.
