IPL 2021, PBKS vs RCB Teams
IPL 2021, PBKS vs RCB Team Playing 11 for Today Match: Punjab Kings will have to play out of their skins to get their stuttering campaign back on track when they face a high-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League in Ahmedabad today. Smarting from a five-wicket defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders, it will not be an easy task for a struggling Punjab side to stand up to the challenge thrown by a RCB team, which has been firing on all cylinders.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Shahbaz Ahmed, Daniel Sams, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Prabhsimran Singh, Shahrukh Khan, Chris Jordan, Riley Meredith, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Harpreet Brar
Teams (from):
Punjab Kings: KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers (W), Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, MS Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Daniel Sams, Harshal Patel, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian, Suyash Prabhudessai, K S Bharat, Finn Allen.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have won the toss and have opted to field.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Shahbaz Ahmed, Daniel Sams, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Prabhsimran Singh, Shahrukh Khan, Chris Jordan, Riley Meredith, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Harpreet Brar
20 minutes to toss and team news
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Punjab Kings’ West Indian batsman Nicholas Pooran has decided to donate a part of his IPL salary to help India fight the deadly resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scores of people across the country are dying in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic. India has reported over 3.86 lakh fresh COVID cases since Thursday.
READ | Pooran to donate part of his IPL salary to India’s COVID-19 battle
RCB batting coach Sanjay Bangar, ahead of their contest against a struggling Punjab Kings, explained the reasons behind the difference between RCB in 2020, and RCB in 2021.
“Unlike last season, where RCB was dependent a lot on Virat and AB firing all the time with the bat. Maybe Finch wasn’t contributing enough, some other guys who were part of the team were unable to do that. But this season has been pretty good, We have contributions from various batsmen,” Bangar said in a video posted on RCB’s official Twitter account.
With scores of 6*, 47, 15*, 22 and 13, PBKS young gun Shahrukh Khan is one big knock away from attaining Tewatia status in the IPL, you get the feeling. “I think that’s a lot of pressure to put on his shoulders. I would want to back up that truck a little bit and say no. Just let him play and develop. People develop at different speeds as well. He might take three-four seasons to become a reliable finisher. I don’t want to compare anyone with Kieron Pollard, he’s 6 foot 5, he’s huge. Shahrukh Khan is a big guy as well. Maybe he can look to aspire to be like Hardik Pandya,” Styris says on the Cricket Connected Show on Star Sports.
RCB are sitting pretty with five wins out of six, but will look to strengthen that position even more with another good performance on Friday. Virat Kohli’s team have the winning momentum with them and wouldn’t want to part with it now, with games coming thick and fast in IPL 2021.
PBKS: KL Rahul (c and wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan, Deepak Hooda, Shahrukh Khan, Chris Jordan, Jhye Richardson, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh.
RCB: Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (C), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Dan Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammad Siraj
Dew may come into play at Ahmedabad, making life a little difficult for the bowlers. But RCB would once again have the edge here with a bowling unit that has been arguably one of the best in the tournament so far. With three matches to go in Ahmedabad, RCB, who would want to seal the next round berth in the city before moving to Kolkata may just consider this as the first step towards realizing that dream.
RCB have clicked as a unit, sometimes they have found a hero, and on the whole managed to bury the ghosts of the past to be in a situation from where they are one of the better-positioned teams to make it to the play-offs before moving to Kolkata for their next leg. RCB have done most things right. However, they too would want their top order to fire a bit more to lighten the load on AB de Villiers. Devdutt Padikkal already has a hundred in the tournament and both captain Kohli and Maxwell have returned a few good knocks. If these three fire together, Punjab may have another difficult game on the cards.
KL Rahul continues to top the charts for his team, with three fifties so far in IPL 2021. The 29-year-old got a start against Kolkata Knight Riders but couldn’t get a move on. Punjab Kings fans however will be optimistic for Rahul to get a big score on Friday, as he has got a fifty every alternate game in the IPL this year. Rahul was unbeaten on both occasions against RCB in 2020, scoring 193 in those two games.
KL Rahul wasn’t dismissed even once against RCB in IPL 2020.
Chris Gayle has a strike rate of over 259 against Mohammad Siraj.
Mohammed Shami has dismissed Virat Kohli four times in seven games so far in the IPL.
Today’s action in the IPL will see Punjab Kings take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Both those teams find themselves on different sides of the points table, as RCB have managed five wins so far while Punjab Kings have managed just two. Nevertheless, if recent history is anything to go by, one can expect a close contest when Punjab take on Bangalore.
