Royal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli plays a shot during the match against Mumbai Indians at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. PTIBengaluru: Rival captains Virat Kohli and Steven Smith will be eager to stem the rot when Royal Challengers Bangalore square off with Rising Pune Supergiants in an Indian Premier League encounter, here on Sunday.
Both the high-profile franchises have lost three out of their four games and would want to arrest the slide as momentum can quickly shift in a high-paced T20 tournament.
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While Kohli's return from injury with a stylish half-century was a morale-booster for RCB, they would definitely be disappointed after losing a low-scoring game to Mumbai Indians after having them on the mat.
Pune on the other hand lost to Gujarat Lions despite a good start to their innings.
Kohli and Smith -- the two premier batsmen in world cricket -- will be desperate to change the script for their respective teams. They would want to plug the holes as well as lead from the front with their individual performances.
Former Pune skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also under pressure to score runs after an indifferent start to IPL-10.
M.S. Dhoni has failed to get going so far in IPL 10. PTI
For RCB, the next two games give them an opportunity to get four points against two of the relatively unsettled side in the tournament -- Pune and Gujarat.
RCB are placed a notch above Gujarat Lions with two points on better run rate.
Pune would also want to gain two vital points, before they take on an in-form Sunrisers Hyderabad in their den and table-toppers Mumbai Indians in away-game, on April 22 and April 24 respectively.
RCB, would like to take solace from the fact that leg-spinner Samuel Badree's hat-trick posed a lot of trouble for the Mumbai Indians before Kieron Pollard saved their day.
Kohli's 62 off 47 balls is also an indicator of the bigger things that can be expected from the Indian captain.
Kohli also had stitched RCB's highest opening stand of 63 runs with an out-of-touch Chris Gayle, followed by a 47-run partnership with AB de Villiers.
Gayle, who has failed to score even one half-century in his last 11 innings, will be keen to make amends. He made 22 off 27 balls against Mumbai and the slowish Chinnaswamy track also added to his woes.
The team management would consider fielding Shane Watson, who can bowl and bat, compared to the West Indian who hardly bowls of late.
RCB would also expect AB de Villiers to come good.
Kedar Jadhav, who was unfortunately run-out for nine in the last game, would like to showcase his utility as a middle-order batsman.
Jadhav had smashed a 37-ball 69 in RCB's 15-run win over Delhi Daredevils after a 31 in the opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
RCB would also like to pin hopes on their bowlers, especially spinners Badree, Yuzuvendra Chahal and Pawan Negi.
The teams: Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (capt), Shane Watson, 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.
Rising Pune Supergiant: Steve Smith (capt), Faf du Plessis, Adam Zampa, Usman Khawja, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda, Ankus Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Ankit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Jaskarn Singh, Baba Aparajith, Deepak Chahar, Mayank Agarwal, Dnaiel Christian, Luckie Farguson, Ben Stokes and Manoj Tiwary.
