Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will once again take the field on Saturday when they battle it out against Steve Smith's Rajasthan Royals in Match 15 of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.
Both RCB and RR are off to a mixed start of the cash-rich tournament, having sealed two wins from three matches they have played so far.
The Rajasthan franchise clinched a 16-run and four-wicket win in their opening two matches against Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings and KL Rahul's Kings XI Punjab, respectively.
The 2008 champion, however, slumped to a 37-run defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders in their last match in Dubai.
Virat Kohli's franchise, on the other hand, kicked off their campaign with a 10-run defeat against SunRisers Hyderabad in their opener before failing to capitalise on the same and suffering a crushing 97-run defeat against Kings XI Punjab.
However, the RCB held their nerves in the third match to register a Super Over win over defending champions and four-time winners Mumbai Indians.
As of now, both sides are looking relatively balanced in all departments. While Rajasthan Royals look good in all the three departments of the game so far, the Kohli-led team looks a bowling-heavy side at the moment.
Talking about the head-to-head record, Rajasthan Royals hold a slight upper hand over the Bangalore franchise heading into their fourth clash.
The two sides have met each other in a total of 21 matches, with RR clinching victories on ten occasions and RCB winning eight of those matches.
Meanwhile, three matches between the two sides ended in no result/abandoned.
RCB vs RR, Dream11 Team Prediction
Wicketkeeper: Sanju Samson
Batsmen: Steve Smith, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal
All Rounders: Rahul Tewatia, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube
Bowlers: Yuzvendra Chahal, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer
Probable XIs:
Royal Challengers Bangalore Probable XI: Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa.
Rajasthan Royals Probable XI: Jos Buttler, Steve Smith, Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa (Manan Vohra), Riyan Parag (Mahipal Lomror), Rahul Tewatia, Tom Curran (Andrew Tye), Shreyas Gopal (Mayank Markande), Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Rajpoot.
The two squads are as follows:
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson (wk), Andrew Tye, Kartik Tyagi, Steven Smith (c), Ankit Rajpoot, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Akash Singh, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Shashank Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Robin Uthappa, Aniruddha Joshi, Jofra Archer
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Singh, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Josh Philippe, Pawan Negi, Pavan Deshpande, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav.
The clash, which is the first double header of the IPL 2020, will take place from 3.30 p.m IST onwards and in the absence of fans amid the coronavirus pandemic.The match will be telecast on Star Sports Network, while the live streaming of the tie will be available on Star’s streaming application Hotstar.
