Both sides have made one change each

Thu, 22 April 2021

19:08

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has won the toss and elected to bowl against Rajasthan Royals in their IPL match in Mumbai on Thursday.

RCB have brought in Jhye Richardson for Patidar, while Shreyas Gopal comes in for Unadkat in the Rajasthan eleven tonight.

A confident Royal Challengers Bangalore will hope to keep the juggernaut rolling -- the Kohli-led team has won all their 3 opening matches so far.

RCB head in to the game after three morale-boosting victories – they edged past defending champions Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener before getting the better of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders to jump to the top of the points table.

On the other hand, the Royals have managed to win only one of their three fixtures. They lost to Chennai Super Kings in their previous match to slip down to the sixth spot. Sanju Samson and his men will be eyeing a second win.

The Royals bowling unit has been underwhelming to say the least, apart from the game against Delhi Capitals, the bowlers have leaked runs. Pacer Jaydev Unadkat shone against the Rishabh Pant led-side, registering the impressive figures of 3/15, while young Chetan Sakariya has shown promise.

In the absence of Jofra Archer, more will be expected out of the likes of Chris Morris and Bangladesh speedster Mustafizur Rahman.

For RCB, Ab de Villiers and new-recruit Glenn Maxwell have been the standout players with the willow. While the South African continues to deliver season after season, the Australian all-rounder is proving to be a valuable addition to the middle order.

In an interesting move RCB played only three foreigners instead of four in the game against KKR. It will be interesting to see if they go for a similar playing XI or get in the likes of leg-spinner Adam Zampa, pacer Kane Richardson or experienced all-rounder Daniel Christian, who hasn't impressed with the bat or ball, back into the team.

Playing XI:

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson(w/c), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Kane Richardson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

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