Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals will lock horns tonight at Bengaluru. Both teams have lost their opening encounter before making a positive comeback in the second. RR had been blessed by the interruption of rain in their game against Delhi which finally produced a victory for them.

RCB, on the other hand, played in a dominating fashion against Punjab and tried to utilize their full strength against the opponents. Today they would once again like to repeat the same as the men led by Kohli look determined to end the franchise’s title-drought.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB’s bowling unit teamed up wonderfully to restrict the opponents to sub-par total last time. Umesh Yadav initiated the downfall by taking three scalps in an over and the rest also kept making troubles for the batsmen in regular intervals.

However, they might want to have an extra bowling option in Pawan Negi or Murugan Aswhin in place of Sarafaraz Khan who haven’t been able to turn up so far. With Chris Woakes and Washington down the order after a fine top and middle-order the exclusion of a batsman won’t be much of a problem for the home side.

Predicted XI: Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Pawan Negi/Murugan Ashwin, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Kulwant Khejroliya

Rajasthan Royals

RR are likely to include Jofra Archer in the starting XI after missing the first two games for the team. If that happens, Ben Laughlin might have to make way for the all-rounder.

The Rajasthan-based franchise would also like to see D’Arcy Short and Ben Stokes proving their worth in the tournament. Short has been unlucky so far and fell victim to two run outs.

Predicted XI: Ajinkya Rahane, D'Arcy Short, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Jos Buttler, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Jofra Archer