Desperate RCB set to halt disgraceful record at Bengaluru
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab, two of the three team to have never won the title, will face-off each other at Bengaluru on Friday. Both teams will definitely want to get out of the unfortunate trio in this season of the Indian Premier League [IPL].
KXIP started their campaign with a comfortable triumph over Delhi Daredevils, thanks to two brilliant innings form KL Rahul and Karun Nair. On the other hand, one of the favorites in the tournament—RCB started their journey with a defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB back home in an attempt to change their disgraceful home-record in 2017. The Kohli-led men won only one game at Bengaluru in the previous season.
Although they have reset the squad this year, their spin department struggled during their match against KKR. However, Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar teamed up brilliantly for India in the recently-concluded Nidahas Trophy. They would like repeat that after having an unsuccessful opening.
Bangalore are unlikely to have a change in their squad, especially in their batting line-up but they would also like to see some runs coming from Quinton de Kock and Sarfaraz Khan’s willows.
Predicted XI: Quinton de Kock, Brendon McCullum, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Kulwant Khejrolia, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav
Kings XI Punjab
The city of Bengaluru would like to watch Chris Gayle bat in there once again but it depends on Ravichandran Ashwin if the KXIP skipper wants to make any change in the winning combination by bringing in Gayle.
Andrew Tye failed to join the hunt with other bowlers in the last match. He’s been among the wickets recently and would surely like to prove his worth against RCB’s strong batting line-up in this clash.
Predicted XI: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Prediction
RCB have been like the Proteas in world cricket since the inception of the league. Despite putting up a series of impressive performances throughout the whole competition, they fail to hold their nerves until the end. However, the last season was their worst till date as the franchise had finished bottom of the league.
After a loss in the opening match, their zealous captain will leave no stone unturned to register their first win while having the home crowd cheer for them.
