Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will take on their experienced batsmen to end the 17 -year wait of victory here when Chennai will take on the Indian Premier League match here in the Indian Premier League match here on Friday.
RCB defeated Super Kings in Chepak only once and that too in the first session of the tournament in 2008. In the current RCB team, only star batsman Virat Kohli was part of that match and now he would like to penetrate the fort of Super Kings for the second time.
However, the path of RCB will not be easy. As usual, the Chennai team will be willing to give a tough competition to the opposing teams in their domestic matches on the pitch of the spinners.
The team has veteran Ravindra Jadeja, who is part of the team for a long time, while last year, through the players auction, he has associated his ‘old player’ Ravichandran Ashwin with the team.
The Chennai team has also included Afghanistan’s left -arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmed in the team and the trio performed well against five -time champions Mumbai Indians a few days ago.
All three threw 11 overs against Mumbai and took five wickets for 70 runs.
In this match too, the traditional pitch of Chennai will be seen and the RCB batsmen led by Kohli will have to improve their game to beat the experienced bowling attack.
RCB’s batting order will have to be more clever instead of being completely aggressive against the three -dimensional spin invasion of Super Kings and Kohli will have to lead them.
Kohli’s batting has not always been a strong side to face spin, but in the last two years he has shown a lot of improvement in this department. The main reason for this change is his desire to play more sweeps and slog sweeps against the spinners and Kohli will have to show all his expertise in the match to be held on Friday evening.
Kohli will also have support from batsmen like Phil Soult, Captain Rajat Patidar, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma.
Seeing Chepak’s pitch, RCB may probably include Jacob Bethel in the XI instead of Tim David who also gives the option of spin bowling with left hand.
The team will also be eyeing the fitness of fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who could not play due to injury in the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders and if this experienced fast bowler fit, he will be included in the eleventh instead of Rasikh Salaam.
On the other hand, Super Kings would be expected to re -get their middle order to come back to rhythm as Shivam Dubey, Deepak Hooda and Sam Curren could not leave an impact against Mumbai Indians in the last match. He will have to support Rachin Ravindra and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad more and will also expect another effective innings from Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The team of Chennai Super Kings will also keep an eye on the fitness of top fast bowler Mathisha Pathirana who could not play in the match against Mumbai. If the Sri Lankan player achieves fitness on time, then he can get a chance instead of Nathan Ellis.
The teams are as follows:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Mahendra Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dubey, Mathisha Pathirana, Noor Ahmed, Ravichandran Ashwin, Devon Conway, Syed Khalil Ahmed, Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Sam Curin, Sheikh Rasht Kamboj, Shikh Rasht Kamboj, Gurjanpreet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Jamie Overton, Kamlesh Nagerkoti, Ramakrishnan Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Vansh Bedi and Andre Siddartha.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Rajat Patidar (Captain), Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Tukara, Jacket, Jack Bethel, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chikara, Lungi Engidi, Abhinandan Singh and Mohit Rathi.
Time: The match will start at 7.30 pm
