Ahmedabad: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who are among the most consistent teams at this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) will take on Punjab Kings (PBKS) who have been among the most inconsistent, losing four out of their six matches.
RCB have won five of the six matches they have played with their only loss coming against Chennai Super Kings.
They are coming off a close one-run win against Delhi Capitals on Tuesday. The win took them to 10 points.
In contrast, PBKS are in poor shape. Their batting has been failing. West Indian superstar Chris Gayle hasn’t got runs under his belt while skipper KL Rahul too hasn’t been in top form.
Mayank Agarwal got a few scores recently but PBKS haven’t seen two or three of their batsmen score big together in one match.
PBKS’ bowling though has been impressive. But the RCB batting line-up will provide a massive challenge to them. With the likes of Devdutt Padikkal, skipper Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell in the batting line-up, the PBKS bowlers will be tested.
The Punjab franchise needs to win desperately to enter the second phase of the tournament on a high.
Squads:
Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (captain/wicketkeeper), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Finn Allen (wicket-keeper), AB de Villiers (wicket-keeper), Pavan Deshpande, Washington Sundar, Daniel Sams, Yuzvendra Chahal, Scott Kuggeleijn, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Harshal Patel, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Daniel Christian, Suyash Prabhudessai, K.S. Bharat.
IANS