It will be a crucial match for Royal Challengers Bangalore as they take on Gujarat Lions in the 44th match of the VIVO IPL 2016 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. RCB have only won 4 out of their 10 matches and are currently in 6th position on the points table. GL, on the other hand, have already won 7 games and require just 1 more victory to secure a berth in the playoffs. While the Challengers have enjoyed a great IPL batting-wise, it is their bowling that has been the primary reason behind their struggles. The Lions, meanwhile, have been equally good in both departments and it goes to show in the way they have performed in their debut IPL season.
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Let's take a look at the team which may represent Royal Challengers Bangalore in the match:
Batting
RCB's biggest strength in the 9th edition of the IPL has been their batting with skipper Virat Kohli leading the way. The ace batsman has scored 568 runs at an incredible average of 71 and 2 centuries to his name. AB de Villiers has been the ideal foil for Kohli with a tally of 409 runs in 10 innings at a hard-hitting strike rate of just under 157.
Wicket-keeper batsman KL Rahul has been quite a revelation for RCB ever since he was drafted to the playing XI as he has scored 332 runs in just 8 innings at an average of 55.33 and already has 4 half-centuries under his belt. Chris Gayle is the only top-order batsman who has performed badly for RCB with just 13 runs in 4 innings so far.
There have been decent contributions from the likes of Shane Watson and Sachin Baby towards the end of the innings and the Bangalore batting looks quite settled overall.
All-rounders
As expected, Watson has been RCB's star all-rounder in the 2016 IPL with 152 runs at a strike rate of more than 155 and quite a number of wickets as well. Stuart Binny, who has played 8 matches in the tournament, has not been able to perform too well with either bat or ball. To be fair to him, though, he has only come out to bat in 3 innings this season. Other all-rounders that RCB has tried till now have not been able to deliver.
Bowling
The bowling has easily been the biggest drawback for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2016 edition of the IPL. Shane Watson has been the only one who has bowled really well with 14 wickets in 10 matches and is among the top five wicket-takers in the season. Among other bowlers, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also been decent and claimed 8 wickets in 7 matches.
New buy Chris Jordan has performed poorly in the 3 games that he has played and has conceded his runs at 12 per over. Almost all the bowlers who have played for RCB in the 2016 season have failed to impress and have been taken for a lot of runs by the opposition batsmen. The bowlers need to improve their performance if Bangalore want to win all their remaining matches and make it to the playoffs.
Probable Playing XI
Virat Kohli (c), Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Lokesh Rahul (wk), Shane Watson, Sachin Baby, Stuart Binny, Kane Richardson, Vikas Tokas, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Aaron.
Here's the team which may play for Gujarat Lions:
Batting
The Gujarat Lions batting line-up has fired as a unit so far in their debut season. Nearly all their batsmen have been among the runs with skipper Suresh Raina being the highest run-getter with 286 runs. Aaron Finch has been in superb form and scored 276 runs at an average of 55.20 in 7 innings with 4 half-centuries.
The opening pair of Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith has also fired and they have provided some blistering starts to the Lions. Wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik has bolstered the middle order with some solid performances and has scored 3 fifties in the 2016 IPL. Only all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo have not contributed much with the bat for Gujarat.
All-rounders
Bravo and Jadeja may have performed very decently with the ball but they have not lived up to the all-rounder tag as they haven't done enough with the bat. While Ravindra Jadeja has scored 116 runs at an average of 16.57, Dwayne Bravo only has 70 runs from 10 innings. The other known all-rounder in their squad, James Faulkner, has not been able to deliver and has been out of the playing XI for the past few matches.
Bowling
The GL bowling attack has put on a good show in the team's debut season and has been a driving force behind their success. Bravo has been their leading wicket-taker with 12 wickets thus far followed by seamer Dhawal Kulkarni who has claimed 10 wickets at an economy rate of just 7.
Praveen Kumar, too, came into his own in Gujarat's previous match against KKR as he recorded figures of 2 for 19 and received the Player of the Match award for his efforts. The spinners have been doing a decent job with Jadeja picking up 6 wickets and youngster Shivil Kaushik claiming 4.
Probable Playing XI
Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shivil Kaushik, Pravin Tambe.
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