In need of a total reboot, Gujarat Giants will be wary of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s newfound firepower in the middle-order when the two teams clash in the Indian Premier League in Ahmedabad on April 28.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
After ending what seemed an unending series of defeats at Hyderabad a couple of days ago, Royal Challengers Bengaluru must be hoping its turnaround story continues in Sunday’s sweltering heat. It is up against a home side that should want to put behind it the four-run loss to Delhi Capitals in its last match.
Despite that defeat at New Delhi, Gujarat Titans is still in the race for a place in the IPL playoffs, with eight points from nine games. RCB has just four points from as many games and is placed right at the bottom of the pile.
Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, however, RCB had one of its more gratifying days with the bat, as the middle-order clicked, with Rajat Patidar and Cameron Green scoring 50 and 37 not out respectively off the 20 balls they each faced. The RCB batting this season had been mostly about opener Virat Kohli (430 runs).
The bowling attack, featuring the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Swapnil Singh, and Karn Sharma had done well to subdue SRH’s powerful batting line-up. They should be particularly wary of captain Shubman Gill, who loves to bat at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Gill and B. Sai Sudharshan have been doing the bulk of scoring for GT. Some runs from the middle order should help.
In Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, and R. Sai Kishore, GT boasts fine spinners. Seamer Sandeep Warrier was impressive in the last match. However, the death bowling let the team down.
Teams (from):
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, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), David Miller, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma, Azmatullah Omarzai, Umesh Yadav, Shahrukh Khan, Sushant Mishra, Kartik Tyagi, Manav Suthar, Spencer Johnson, Sandeep Warrier, BR Sharath.
Match starts at 3.30 PM.
