Captain Patidar vs Captain Shreyas
On the periphery, Rajat Patidar and Shreyas Iyer have little in common.
Iyer has proven credentials, an IPL winning captain with an excellent track record as a batter in this tournament. Patidar, on the other hand, is a first-time captain in the IPL and does not have a glittering CV as his PBKS counterpart as a batter.
But the dissimilarities end there. They have exuded a reassuring calmness while guiding the team irrespective of outcomes.
Patidar has been authoritative without being overbearing while leading a squad full of super stars such as Virat Kohli and Hazlewood. He has to be at his tactical and managerial best against a versatile opponent.
A superb player of spin, Patidar will also have to take upon himself the task of nullifying the twin threat of Chahal and Maxwell if the M Chinnaswamy deck retains its slow-paced character.
Iyer too is one of the best players of spin around, the best equipped in Punjab line-up to tackle RCB’s Krunal and Suyash.
As a team, Punjab will be high on confidence after their 16-run win over KKR in a recent low-scoring thriller. But they will be well aware that RCB, which has depth in batting and bowling, will be a harder opponent to overcome.
Teams (from): Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethel, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (c), Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harpreet Brar, Azmatullah Omarzai, Josh Inglis, Xavier Bartlett, Vishnu Vinod, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Harnoor Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyla Avinash.
Match starts at 7.30 pm. IST.