Ever since the IPL began a decade ago, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) have faced each other on 20 occasions. Despite RCB boasting of an explosive batting line-up over the years, surprisingly it is KXIP who have dominated over Virat Kohli and co. by recording 12 victories. At the Chinnaswamy stadium, RCB has managed to win just two of their past six matches against the KXIP. Playing on their home ground, RCB has also lost all their last five matches here. Hence, on Friday they will face an uphill task against a rejuvenated KXIP led by R Ashwin.
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OPENERS:
Brendon McCullum
Baz, as he is fondly known, has been lighting up T20 leagues all around the world with his explosive batting skills.He started off his Bangalore career in swashbuckling form scoring 43 off a mere 27 balls,he will look to continue that form on Friday also.
Quinton De Kock
De kock has been struggling with his form all summer with the South African National team and did not have the best of starts to the tournament.The Bangalore pitch will help the fiery opener in playing his shots and thus providing a platform for RCB to launch at the end. But if he fails today, he could find himself out of the team from the next game on.
MIDDLE ORDER:
Virat Kohli
Playing an international match after nearly 2 months, Virat looked rusty in his batting at Eden’s Garden, he will look to be back in form as his runs are crucial to this RCB Side.
AB De Villiers
AB de Villiers has undoubtedly been RCB’s best middle-order batsman since he joined the side in 2011. He has single-handedly taken RCB to numerous victories over the years and produced some breathtaking knocks along the way.He will look to continue his good form from the last game and finish off the innings with RCB.
Manan Vohra
With Sarfaraz Khan probably missing this game because of an injury, Vohra is a capable replacement for him. The 24-year-old was one of the key players for the Kings XI Punjab over the past few years. He produced a few amazing knocks over the years but was quite inconsistent as well.
Mandeep Singh
Playing a fabulous knock in the last match scoring 37 from 18 balls,he will be hoping to continue this rich vein of form and be hoping to perform against his birth state in Punjab.
ALL-ROUNDERS:
Chris Woakes
The English all-rounder has been in great form for his national side and has been contributing with the bat and the ball. He picked up 17 wickets with the ball last year but leaked a lot of runs; going at 8.77 per over.He was the pick of the RCB bowlers in the last match picking up 3 wickets in the process.
Washington Sundar
The 18-year-old all-rounder first made his mark in the 2016 ICC U-19 World Cup and followed that up with a remarkable outing with the Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL last year. He will be a key player for RCB in this match and will hope to make a similar impact for them as he did for the Indian side.
BOWLERS:
Yuzvendra Chahal
He had a really poor performance in his last match not completing his quota of 3 overs at going at and economy rate of 9 runs per over,Kohli will want Chahal to improve his performance and get him those important breakthroughs in the middle overs.
Umesh Yadav
A good compliment to Chris Woakes in the new bowl department for this RCB team ,good performance in the previous game will give him great confidence to show case his skills in front of his new home crowd.
Kulwant Khejroliya
The fast bowler hailing from Delhi is fast off the deck and performed well in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy will be hoping to perform well after not so great performance in the last match conceding 34 runs in mere 3.4 overs.
