A glittering and electrifying Monday night awaits M Chinnaswamy Stadium as Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match no. 6. The RCB Unbox event was only the curtain raiser of how the atmosphere could be when superstars like Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, etc. will walk out on the field for some mouth-watering face-offs.
There will be no dearth of home support and the Royal Challengers will be looking forward to what they witnessed at the yellow-painted Chepauk last week. Despite putting in a 170-plus total against Chennai Super Kings, the men in blue and red were left biting the dust. Though it was just the start of the tournament but getting back to winning ways will be RCB’s only aim when they take on Punjab.
RCB Changes: Karn out, Himanshu in
In order to do so, the hosts will want their batters to fire better than before and also, look to make a few changes to their bowling line-up. Karn Sharma might face the axe after an expensive spell against the defending champions in their last game. The franchise might hand an IPL debut to rookie legspinner Himanshu Sharma and replace Alzarri Joseph with New Zealand pacer Lokie Ferguson.
In the batting department, the focus will be on Rajat Patidar. The MP batter needs no introduction but must find his lost rhythm before Mahipal Lomror replaces him in the line-up.
Punjab Kings Unchanged
The PBKS batters were brilliant at home when they locked horns with Delhi Capitals on Saturday. The top-6 fired at a strike-rate of more than 100, making the chase of 175 an easy task. They will have to keep the momentum intact if they seek victory in Bengaluru.
Some fine-tuning is required with the bowling though especially Harshal Patel who was taken to the cleaners in the previous encounter. 47 runs in 4 overs at an economy of more than 11 was a wakeup call for the right-arm quick given the fact that a seasoned campaigner in Rishi Dhawan is still available in the squad.
The side was more or less balanced in the campaign opener in which they registered a 4-wicket win and are likely to go unchanged in Bengaluru.
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RCB vs PBKS Predicted XIs
RCB Predicted XI vs PBKS: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat (wk), Himanshu Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj
PBKS Predicted XI vs RCB: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
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