Tomorrow’s IPL 2017 match between RCB and Kings XI Punjab will witness a historic moment. Chris Gayle, who is to T20 cricket what Donald Bradman is to cricket in general, will become the first player ever to score over 10,000 runs in T20 cricket if he gets just 25 runs.
Gayle is an outstanding player, but it has been a while since he has been at his devastating best. In fact, his performances over this year and the last have been below average. There is a fear that he might be getting too old for this stuff, which is sad, because there has never been a more dangerous batsman in recent times in cricket.
Royal Challengers have so far been without Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Kohli is expected to take a while longer to recover from his shoulder injury. AB, though, has almost recovered from his injury and is likely to make a comeback into the RCB side.
If AB was to come back, there is no question that Gayle would be asked to step aside. De Villiers would play in the opener’s slot.
Kings XI Punjab have done well so far, having won their game against Rising Pune Supergiant. Most of the Kings XI players look like they are in good nick except for Hashim Amla.
One might argue that Amla is too slow for T20 cricket, although he is one of the most elegant players in the game. Eoin Morgan, the captain of the England ODI and T20 teams, might well make his debut for the side and replace Hashim Amla in the opening position.
We should have an exciting game as RCB would be desperate to win, having won one and lost one game so far. Kings XI will want to make it two wins in a row.
The Teams
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Hashim Amla/Eoin Morgan, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Swapnil Singh, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 T Natarajan.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Shane Watson (capt), 3 AB de Villiers/Travis Head/Billy Stanlake, 4 Mandeep Singh, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Stuart Binny, 7 Vishnu Vinod (wk), 8 Pawan Negi/S Aravind, 9 Iqbal Abdulla, 10 Tymal Mills, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Watch Kings XI Punjab take on Royal Challengers Bangalore live from Indore on April 10, 2017 at 2000 local (1430 GMT)!
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