RR Playing 11 today: The Sportsrush presents before you RR’s Predicted Playing 11 for their eighth match of IPL 2019.
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After a very poor start to their IPL campaign, The Rajasthan Royals finally managed to get a win by defeating the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede. Rahane’s men would now be optimistic about the way forward. Buttler played a significant role in the previous match and RR will be hoping for him to fire again.
This is the best time for RR to get the better of KXIP with the latter suffering two back to back losses. Getting the wickets of Gayle and Rahul early is the best way to cripple KXIP. Rajasthan need to be positive and believe in their capabilities. They have some big names and they can make a humongous comeback.
RR Playing 11 today
Top-order
The top order will not see any changes. Jos Buttler, who played a match-winning knock of 89 runs off just 43 balls, will look to go berserk again. He has already scored 288 runs in 7 matches. Captain Rahane has been decent at the top and will maintain his position there. Sanju Samson has played well and even has a century under his belt this season. He would need to play an extremely crucial stabilizing role at No. 3.
Middle-order
With 186 runs in 7 matches, Steve Smith has not really taken the IPL by storm. He has to play a critical role at No. 4 and take more responsibility as a senior pro in the team. Rahul Tripathi, originally an opener, has not played too well so far. However, looking at his capability, RR might be tempted to give the young man a few more games.
Ben Stokes is expected to make a comeback to the team after a small injury. His ability with bat and ball makes him a huge asset but he really needs to arrive at the party immediately. It is now or never!
Shreyas Gopal and Krishnappa Gowtham would round up the batting with some big shots and a good finish at the bottom of the order.
Bowlers
RR bowlers have not bowled in accordance to their talent at all. However, we did see some glimpses of form in the previous match. Jofra Archer needs to pick more wickets and bowl some tight overs at the death. Dhawal Kulkarni has been bowling well in the powerplay overs and would need to pick up a few early wickets. Jaydev Unadkat has once again has had a bad season so far.
He, however, is looking a little better and would want to contribute much more to RR. Shreyas Gopal has been great with the ball and has picked up 8 scalps at an economy rate of just over 6 an over. In T20, this is gold dust. Gowtham will also bowl a few overs probably in the powerplay. Ben Stokes will round up the RR bowling attack.
RR Playing 11 today – 1) Ajinkya Rahane (C) 2) Jos Buttler 3) Sanju Samson (WK) 4) Steven Smith 5) Rahul Tripathi 6) Ben Stokes 7) Shreyas Gopal 8) Krishnappa Gowtham 9) Jofra Archer 10) Dhawal Kulkarni 11) Jaydev Unadkat
