What better fixture to closely monitor than the one that unlocked that specific window of imagination sixteen years ago, a game that has pushed the boundaries of what is conceivable. Examine the past performances of RCB vs KKR or just take a quick look at both teams, and you can see that large runs are possible even though the recently renovated M. Chinnaswamy Stadium may not be ideal for helping to win back the IPL record that was lost to Hyderabad two nights ago.
To extend their batting innings against the Kings, RCB substituted Mahipal Lomror for Karn Sharma. Lomror’s critical 17 not out off eight balls to assist RCB win the match proved to be the game-winning move.
In the opening game, Faf du Plessis and Andy Flower made a daring decision to select only the four frontline bowlers and force their two overseas all-rounders to bowl five overs. As a result, they were able to select Dinesh Karthik and Anuj Rawat in the starting eleven while adding Mahipal Lomror as a “Impact Sub” to increase batting depth.
Neil McKenzie, the batsman, affirmed that the strategy will stick as RCB tries to comfort their big players to take calculated risks because they have enough of batting left to offer.
They are predicted to follow the same strategy, with Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green filling in for the fifth bowler. Reece Topley should be substituted for Alzarri Joseph, though, as he has scored 1 for 81 in 7.4 overs in the first two games.
Everyone believed Sunil Narine’s days as an IPL opener were over when his vulnerability to the short ball was revealed. However, in KKR’s opening encounter of the season with Gujarat Titans, he opened the scoring with two runs off just four balls before being out. Seeing how he performs now that the two-bouncer rule is in effect will be intriguing.
Bengaluru’s initial match offered some turn, but KKR will need to decide if taking a chance at Chinnaswamy with their three-card trick of Narine+Varun+Suyash is worth it. Sunil Narine has an outstanding RCB vs KKR record against both Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli, while Varun Chakravarthy was named Player of the Match the last time he played here.
Venue : M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
KKR Probable XI: Phil Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma.
RCB Probable XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal
