RCB come back home for a crucial part of their tournament as they are set to face 2 big hitting teams in Chinnaswamy before moving onto slower tracks which seems to suit their team more.
RR come here after a loss where a lot of their selections were questioned as they lost the game from a winning position.
Team Preview
Royal Challengers Banglore
After a comprehensive win with Kohli back as captain, RCB will now walk into the toughest part of their campaign with 3 games in pace friends high scoring grounds against teams who are better built to handle those conditions. Their Indian middle order continues to fail with no clarity on the role of each of these batsmen. Lomror has good numbers against spin in SMAT and with him being left-handed, we might see him deployed in the middle overs to perform a role that Maxwell has been doing. Suyash has the range to play both pace and spin and is most likely going to start at 3 where he replaced Rajath. Shahbaz has had disappointing returns with the bat.
Key Player: Virat Kohli
With Captain Kohli set to lead again, he has to put up a captain’s innings to get RCB the win here. He has been guilty of slowing down after the powerplay and will look to maintain a stable rate of 7-9 RPO in the middle and this task will only get harder as Yuzi and Ash will be bowling here, 2 bowlers who have been around to watch Virat play a lot of cricket. A big inning is all but necessary for them as a collapse in their batting line-up is making it hard to capitalise on their good starts.
With a slowdown expected after the powerplay, I feel one of Faf or Virat will stay back and look to bat through the entire innings while the other person looks to hit the gas after a point.
Kohli will need to use the 8 overs that Hasaranga and Shahbaz bowl properly. With the Chinnaswamy wicket being a little sluggish in the day games, Hasaranga with his variations and a favourable matchup with Samson will be the key battle of this game. In a ground where runs are not scarce, Shahbaz will need to bowl the right line and lengths to keep their batsmen at bay with the ball gripping and turning a little.
Kohli as captain will need to use his spin overs properly if they want to restrict RR to anything under 180.
Rajasthan Royals
With their lower middle order failing again, RR would look to grab some points in Bengaluru as this is ground with suits their team compositions. The front 4 batsmen in Buttler, Jaiswal, Samson and Hetmeyer would look to take apart the fragile RCB bowling attack and look for a score well above 200. Despite RCB’s amazing powerplay returns this season, the RR openers are more likely to come on top with their batsmen latching on to anything which gives them too much width.RCb bowlers have been guilty of this many times this season, with Parnell and Vyshak set to have a tough time with the new ball as Siraj will look to once again lead this bowling lineup.
Samson in the middle overs will be a huge threat with RCB reluctant to bowl Hasaranga when left-handers are on the crease. With DDP and Hetmeyer in the middle order, Hasaranga and Shahbaz might not have a lot of impact with the ball opening up the gates to a pace-heavy middle over with Harshal and Vyshak taking lead. With both teams struggling to contain the death overs, it will be purely for down-to-matchups and the execution of their skills on that given day.
Key Player: Sanju Samson
With RCb criminally underusing Shahbaz and Hasaranga in the middle overs, Samson has the perfect game to win RR the encounter. On a batter-friendly pitch, he will be fed with a lot of pace overs with Parnell, Vyshak and Harshal being guilty of missing their marks which will only ease his job. Samson as captain will have to be at the top of his game while using his spinners.
With Yuzi having a terrific record on this ground and Ashwin having the ability to slow things down with ease, Sanju will look to use these 8 overs to choke down the RCB batting line-up and put them under pressure.
Probable Playing XI
Royal Challengers Banglore: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Suyash Prabhudessai, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, R Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal
Key Matchups
Sanju Samson vs Wanindu Hasaranga: Runs-23, Balls-23, Dismissals-3
Sanju Samson vs Mohammed Siraj: Runs-21, Balls-20, Dismissals-2
Riyan Parag vs Harshal Patel: Runs-37, Balls-20, Dismissals-2
Virat Kohli vs Ravichandran Ashwin: Runs-162, Balls-127, Dismissals-1
Virat Kohli vs Sandeep Sharma: Runs-78, Balls-58, Dismissals-7
Dinesh Karthik vs Yuzvendra Chahal: Runs-42, Balls-46, Dismissals-3
Glenn Maxwell vs Ravichandran Ashwin: Runs-99, Balls-44, Dismissals-1
Glenn Maxwell vs Yuzvendra Chahal: Runs-34, Balls-29, Dismissals-3
Faf Du Plessis vs Adam Zampa: Runs-23, Balls-19, Dismissals-3
Virat Kohli vs Jason Holder: Runs-9, Balls-10, Dismissals-2
Virat Kohli vs Adam Zampa: Runs-30, Balls-13, Dismissals-0
Glenn Maxwell vs Trent Boult: Runs-8, Balls-13, Dismissals-2
RCB vs RR Dream11 Team
Note: This is not our final Dream11 Team as we are not aware of the Toss Result/Final Playing XI of both teams at this moment.
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