The RCB vs RR game, which will be the first off the two games to be played later on Saturday, is scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm (IST) with the toss at 3 pm. The game will be followed by the clash between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders later in the evening at 7:30 pm (IST)
The RCB vs RR clash will he headlined as the battle between two of the modern day batting greats of the sport in Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, both of whom will be leading their respective sides later in the evening.
Both teams have enjoyed a fair deal of success early in the tournament with two wins each in their previous three outings. While RCB edged out defending champions Mumbai Indians in a thrilling Super Over, Rajasthan Royals lost their first game of the season to Kolkata Knight Riders after notching up two resounding wins over KXIP and CSK.
Levelled at 4 points each, Steve Smith-led RR are currently occupying the fourth spot, a position above the Kohli-captained RCB (run rate -1.450), thanks to their better net run-rate (-0.219).
There is plenty of firepower with the bat on either sides with a galaxy of destructive stroke-makers in the batting ranks of both RCB and RR. While RR skipper Steve Smith and power hitter Sanju Samson have fired early in the tournament with some blistering innings, the form of Jos Buttler and Robin Uttappa and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal remains a major worry for the Royals.
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On similar lines, RCB have seen some noteworthy batting performances by openers Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch and AB De Villiers but would like their star skipper Virat Kohli to a good knock under his belt after three failures with the bat.
Both sides have good batting depth and balance with all-rounders in Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar (RCB), Rahul Tewatia (RR).
RCB seems to have the edge in the spin department with a more potent spin armoury in Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar and Adam Zampa, RR will rely majorly on Shreyas Gopal and the part time spin of Riyan Parag or Rahul Tewatia.
There would be red hot pace on offer with speedsters in Jofra Archer and Navdeep Saini who have clocked over the 145 kmph mark consistently. While Jaydev Unadkat brings in a bit of variation to the RR seam attack with his left arm spin, Lankan medium pacer Isuru Udana has been a good foil to the tearaway speedster Navdeep Saini
Here are the full squads for Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL:
RCB: Virat Kohli (captain), 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 (captain), 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