Steve Smith and Virat Kohli
Up until Friday, dew played a heavy role in all the 14 matches of IPL 2020, not just during the toss, but also in during the chases. But for the first time this season, the dew factor will be kept aside as Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Rajasthan Royals for the first afternoon game of IPL 2020 and on first of the five double-header Saturdays, at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Rajasthan won both their first two matches, at the high-scoring Sharjah, but got their plans wrong during the Kolkata Knight Riders clash in Dubai this week. The ground in Abu Dhabi is going to be no different from Dubai and hence Rajasthan will have to come all preppared to gain their third win this season and steer ahead to grab the top spot in the points table.
Rajasthan are most likely to make only one change for the impending clash - Varun Aaron might be called up in place of Ankit Rajpoot.
Royal Challengers Bangalore made a promising start to the season with a 10-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But grappled by familiar issues - the death-over bowling to be precise - RCB lost their second and almost third third before surviving in a Super Over duel.
The Bangalore franchise made three changes in the previous clash and are likely to give those players - Isuru Udana, Adam Zampa and Gurkeerat Mann - another go.
The move to open the bowling with Washington Sundar paid off as the offie returned with figures of 12 for one in four overs in a game where more than 400 runs were scored.
Ab de Villiers has shown ominous touch and it must be heartening for the team management to see Shivam Dube providing the big hits towards the end against Mumbai Indians.
Skipper Kohli is yet to set the tournament on fire and Saturday could be his day.
Squads:
RCB: Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Aaron Finch, Josh Philippe, Chris Morris, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Pavan Deshpande, Adam Zampa.
RR: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Andrew Tye, Kartik Tyagi, Steven Smith (c), Ankit Rajpoot, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Akash Singh, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Shashank Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Robin Uthappa, Aniruddha Joshi, Jofra Archer.
Match starts 3.30 IST.
(with PTI inputs)
