RCB vs PBKS Preview: New captaincy, a new era for both the teams

Both the teams are yet to win the IPL trophy and will be looking forward to doing so in the new arsenal set.

Post-Kohli, the captain era begins tonight with Faf du Plessis taking leadership. Fans will be excited to see Virat Kohli enjoying the game purely as a batter and expecting his good innings, especially after the way MS Dhoni appeared in the first game post captaincy. Many challenges await RCB in initial matches, with key overseas players like Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood being unavailable. Also, it will be interesting to see whether Dinesh Karthik will be able to take up the finishing role after retirement of  AB de Villiers. Harshal Patel and Mohammad Siraj would be responsible for leading the bowling attack for RCB on the bouncy pitch. 

On the other hand, Punjab Kings will be trying to break the Jinx, as they have not been able to make it to playoffs for quite a long time in IPL. After their ex-captain took up the captaincy for the new franchise Lucknow Super Giants, they named Mayank Agarwal as their new captain. The team retained only two players: Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh, and bought back five others in the auctions. They have built a drool-worthy batting line-up in mega-auctions with Shikhar Dhawan at the top, Liam Livingstone in the middle, and Odean Smith at the end. They will also have key players like Jonny Bairstow and Kagiso Rabada unavailable due to national duties.

Pitch Report

The pitch at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai has offered equivalent competition to batters and bowlers. This stadium will be hosting an IPL game after a long time. Captain winning toss will go for the chase, considering the dew factor

Possible Playing XI

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Odean Smith, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Sherfane Rutherford, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Siraj, David Willey

Players to watch out: Faf du Plessis, Mohammad Siraj, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Arshdeep Singh

Stats to keep an eye on

• They have faced each other 28 times in IPL, and Punjab Kings have won 15. Royal Challengers Bangalore has been able to win only 13 of them.
• Of the 17 matches held at this pitch, 10 have been won by the chasing team.
• Faf du Plessis has an average of 61 runs against the Punjab Kings.
• Sandeep Sharma has dismissed Virat Kohli seven times.

Both teams will be eager to start on a high note. This is expected to be a close contest looking at their head to head stats.