Despite claiming a victory in their second game against Delhi Daredevils on Saturday, Royal Challengers Bangalore have hardly looked assured this season. Their famed batting line-up, ravaged by injuries, learnt to put up a fight in the last game when Kedar Jadhav provided superb individual performance to get them to a respectable total of 157.

While, the total proved enough for the Bengaluru-based outfit to eke out their first win of the campaign, it wasn’t a huge total their fans are more accustomed to. With a bowling attack that is one of their weaker links, onus is on the RCB batsmen to make their time at the crease matter. Virat Kohli is still recovering from a shoulder injury, while AB de Villiers’ availability for the game is still in doubt. Opener Chris Gayle will be expected to account for the missing pieces. So far, with scores of 32 and 6, it has not panned out that way.

With the Jamaican just 25 runs away from a landmark 10,000 runs in T20s, there would be no better way for him to celebrate the feat with a big score. Gayle has enjoyed a good run against Kings XI Punjab. He has scored 797 runs against the Punjab outfit, the most by any individual players against an IPL team.

The Shane Watson will be hoping for the Jamaican to deliver the goods, if de Villiers can join him for the game, it would create a headache for Kings XI, who lost both their games to RCB last year.

Time: 8 pm

Venue: Holkar Stadium, Indore

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels

Results in 2016:

Played: 2

Kings XI won: 0

RCB: 2

Kings XI Punjab

  • In five matches against RCB, Glenn Maxwell has scored just 45 runs with a top score of 25.
  • Kings XI Punjab have a better head to head against Royal Challengers Bangalore, winning 10 of the 18 matches the two sides have played in.

“Both teams are coming in with a win. At this stage, it is about building momentum going forward. We will have a look again at their line-up, name our best XI, and make sure that we put our best foot forward in the match.”

Kings XI fielding coach R Sridhar ahead of his side’s game against RCB.

Squad: Glenn Maxwell (capt), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh, Armaan Jaffer, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Arman Jaffer, Anureet Singh, Mohit Sharma, KC Cariappa, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, T Natrajan, Matt Henry, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Gurkeerat Mann, Rahul Tewatia, Darren Sammy, Wriddhiman Saha, Nikhil Naik, Ishant Sharma.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

  • Chris Gayle’s strike rate of 175.55 against Kings XI, is his highest against any other team.

“He (Watson) rotated the bowlers well. Considering the last game wasn’t that good for him as a bowler, he came back very strongly to lead from the front. If we can defend a total like this, I feel big things are ahead.”

Kedar Jadhav on Shane Watson’s captaincy

Squad: Shane Watson (capt), Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Stuart Binny, Tymal Mills, Sreenath Aravind, Aniket Choudhary, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Harshal Patel, Adam Milne, Iqbal Abdulla, Samuel Badree, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake.