RCB vs PBKS: The Punjab Kings will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday evening at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai as both teams begin their new season.
Both the sides also have new captains: with KL Rahul moving away from Punjab, his best friend Mayank Agarwal was named their new skipper; and Faf du Plessis takes over the captaincy duties from Virat Kohli, who stepped down last season. RCB will also miss AB de Villiers, who retired from all forms of the game last year.
Both the franchises have added some serious power in their squads at the mega-auction, and also beefed up their bowling attacks.
Fantasy cricket news for IPL 2022:
Punjab will not have the services of Jonny Bairstow and Kagiso Rabada for this game. The Englishman is playing the third Test in West Indies and Rabada remains in quarantine.
RCB, on the other hand, will have to do their first match without star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who will arrive late after having gotten married only recently. Pacer Josh Hazlewood has also arrived late after the Test series completion in Pakistan and is serving his quarantine.
Expected playing XIs
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Faf du Plessis (c), 2 Anuj Rawat, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Sherfane Rutherford, 5 Mahipal Lomror, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Shahbaz Ahmed/Karn Sharma, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 David Willey
Punjab Kings: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Mayank Agarwal (c), 3 Liam Livingstone, 4 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 5 Shahrukh Khan, 6 Prabhsimran Singh (wk), 7 Odean Smith, 8 Nathan Ellis/Harpreet Brar, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Rahul Chahar
Venue: DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai
This particular venue has hosted only 17 IPL matches and the last IPL game held here was in 2011. Although there isn’t much information about the pitches, expect pacers to pick more wickets than spinners, and the chasing team to win the game as dew settles in.
Fantasy cricket tips for IPL 2022:
Virat Kohli has been freed of his captaincy duties and we may see a blockbuster season from him. However, first up he will have to contend with his IPL nemesis: Sandeep Sharma, the swing bowler has dismissed Kohli 7 times in the IPL!
But the new RCB skipper, Faf du Plessis, loves playing against Punjab: he averages 61 and hit 7 half-centuries against Punjab.
Liam Livingstone seems a safe captaincy option: he is one of the most destructive batters in world cricket, plus he can bowl both off-spin and leg-spin depending on the match-up. Faf du Plessis was in excellent form in the BBL while Kohli is a favourite to score runs.
With the ball, expect David Willey or Siraj to pick nip out an early wicket while Hasaranga and Rahul Chahar could have a good impact.
RCB-PBKS best XI on Dream XI:
Wicket-keeper: Anuj Rawat
Batsmen: Virat Kohli (vc), Faf du Plessis, Mayank Agarwal, Shahrukh Khan
All-rounder: Liam Livingstone (C), Wanindu Hasaranga
Bowlers: Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, David Willey, Arshdeep Singh
