Royal Challenges Bangalore have got off to another poor start. Two defeats in two games, and now they square off against the very good Sunrisers Hyderabad side where David Warner looks like he has a point to prove.
Not just Warner, RCB need to worry about Rashid Khan, who is fast emerging as one of the best all-round cricketers in the world. The young man is a match winner with the ball in hand, and can be depended upon to strike a few lusty blows in the slog overs with the bat as well.
RCB lost their first game to Chennai Super Kings very badly – they made only 70. Then they lost to the very good Mumbai Indians side thanks to superb bowling by Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga. However, they were unlucky in the end as the umpire missed a no ball from Malinga.
RCB are yet to figure out the right balance for their team. They do have three very fast Indian fast bowlers – Umesh Yadav, the veteran, supported by youngsters Mohammad Siraj and Navdeep Saini. They are perhaps the three fastest bowlers in India and all play for one team.
That is good – but they have to learn how to stop the run flow as well. Apart from that, RCB have Yuzvendra Chahal, one of India’s best leg spinners. However, Chahal has leaked a lot of runs in the two games he has played so far.
As for Sunrisers – their batting line-up is very good, no question about that. David Warner – you can make a bet on this – will be the top scorer in this IPL 2019. But their bowling attack has looked very, very poor.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is one of the best bowlers in the death overs in international cricket, has gone for 20 runs in the last over in his last couple of games. The likes of Siddarth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma are just medium pacers and batsmen have no fear of them. The Sunrisers have the most toothless attack in this IPL – except for Rashid Khan, who is like a one-man army these days
The Teams
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Deepak Hooda, Yusuf Pathan, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Shahbaz Nadeem, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Siddarth Kaul, 11 Sandeep Sharma
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Moeen Ali, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Umesh Yadav, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Prediction: Hard to predict a winner in this one. RCB are due one, though. Sunrisers bowling attack is a major weakness.
