Chennai: Royal Challengers Bangalore will bat first in the first match of the IPL today. RCB skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat. Kohli said that only three foreign players will be playing this time. Rajat Patidar has been included in the RCB squad to replace Dan Christian. At the same time there are no changes in the KKR team column. Today, it is also the battle of teh Captains. The teams will be led by Indian captain Virat Kohli and English captain Eoin Morgan. This time both the teams are looking to continue their winning run.
It can be said that RCB has some advantage. They came out on top after winning the first two matches. Along with batting, their bowling has also improved. Mohammad Siraj, Kyle Jamieson, Washington Sundar and Chahal are the RCB’s prospects. In batting, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers are in form. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli is yet to find form. KKR, meanwhile, have their share of concerns.
Teams are not able to raise the score if the openers go. Nitish Rana is in explosive form. He has scored two half-centuries. Shubhman Gill, meanwhile, has not been able to get off to a good start. Both of them need to rise to the form and KKR needs to get big scores.
They are doing better in bowling though. Kolkata had lost from a winning position against Mumbai. After a good start, they lost too many wickets too soon. Not having a big innings from Russell is a big headache as well.
Toss Report: RCB win the toss and choose to bat first
Playing XI
KKR: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
RCB: Virat Kohli (capt), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
