RCB have a five-day gap before their second game against Chennai Super Kings. Then they go up against Gujarat Titans. That’s a lot of high-quality spin for their batters to deal with to begin the season. But once they’re through, they’ll find themselves at the Wankhede and there’s always runs to be had there.
KKR might not mind losing one half of the opening combination that worked so well last time around considering they were able to bring in a former IPL winner in Quinton de Kock to take over. They will want him to improve on his record at Eden Gardens though (65 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 112). Spencer Johnson or Anrich Nortje will step in for Mitchell Starc, whom the franchise has let go.
Kolkata Knight Riders (probable): 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt) 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 5 Venkatesh Iyer, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Varun Chakaravarthy, 11 Spencer Johnson/Anrich Nortje, 12 Vaibhav Arora
RCB have armed themselves with a long batting line-up, which should give them the tools they need to take all the risks they want even against a good bowling attack like KKR. However, their new spinner Suyash Sharma could be a doubt to face his former franchise as he is returning from a long rehab following a groin injury.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (probable): 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Tim David, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Yash Dayal, 12 Swapnil Singh/Mohit Rathee/Rasikh Salam