Bengaluru: A win in their previous games might have boosted the morale of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) but still there were a few flaws in their campaign so far and both of them will look to cover the imperfection when they meet on Friday in an Indian Premier League game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
RCB defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by four wickets in their last match while KKR outplayed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by four runs to bag two points.
For RCB, it was a moment to be glad for them when star batter and opener Virat Kohli blasted a half-century in the fixture against PBKS while chasing 177. However, there are issues in the middle order which the team needs to shift their focus on. Skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Green and Rajat Patidar are yet to shine with the willow and they have relied on cameos from Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror to rescue them out of trouble.
Pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal had good outings against PBKS but speedster Alzarri Joseph has fared average so far. This might compel the team management to consider the option of including left-arm pacer Reece Topley in the lineup in place of the Caribbean bowler.
KKR also need their top and middle order to fire and accumulate some crucial runs. Captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana haven't fared well so far but they will need to play a crucial role in the match.
All-rounder Andre Russell played a scintillating knock for the team but their batting unit will need to pull up their socks before the crucial fixture. Narine bowled an economical spell and conceded just 19 runs in the game taking a wicket. However, pacer Mitchell Starc and Varun Chakravarthy failed to impress in the last fixture.
KKR are unlikely to make any changes to their playing XI unless they want to include leggie Suyash Sharma in the lineup.
Squads
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
The match starts at 7.30 PM.
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