With new captains on both the sides and an appetite to clinch their maiden title, Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Punjab Kings as Mayank Agarwal side won the toss and have opted to bowl first in their IPL opener at DY Patil stadium on Sunday (March 27).
RCB's skipper Faf Du Plessis and PBKS' captain Mayank will look to make their mark spearheading their respective teams with new responsibilities on their shoulders.
The match has also marked former RCB skipper Virat Kohli's 200th innings in IPL who is also the most successful batsman in IPL history. Virat Kohli holds the record for the most runs in the league. Kohli, the former RCB captain, has scored the highest 6283 runs in IPL so far with 42 half-centuries and five tons. Also, Kohli has the most runs against Punjab Kings among all batters in the current RCB squad. Kohli has 741 runs against the Punjab franchise and will look to extend his tally with a big knock on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Glenn Maxwell is away for his marriage while Hazlewood is in Pakistan with the Test side and will miss three matches at least, so is pacer Jason Behrendorff.
Head-to-Head
Punjab Kings have a slight edge over Royal Challengers Bangalore when it comes to the head to head record between the two teams. Punjab have 15 wins to their name in 28 meetings against RCB compared to the latter's 13.
Pitch report
Traditionally this venue hasn't been very high-scoring because of the long boundaries. Fair amount of grass on the pitch so it won't help the spinners much. It also sounds hard, so it should be good to bat on. The par score would be around 165. The trend has been to chase here.
Punjab Kings' Playing XI: Faf du Plessis(c), Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj.
Royal Challengers Bangalore's Playing XI: Mayank Agarwal(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Bhanuka Rajapaksa(w), Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Raj Bawa, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Sandeep Sharma, Rahul Chahar.
