Martin Guptill has added firepower to Kings XI Punjab's batting at the top of the order. IANSBengaluru: A desperate Kings XI Punjab will be aiming a comprehensive victory against a down and out Royal Challengers Bangalore in an Indian Premier League match, here on Friday.
With 8 points from 9 games, Punjab are placed fifth while RCB after 8 defeats from 11 games are at the bottom of the heap.
Read also: Rahul Tripathi reaps the rewards of aggression
For Kings XI Punjab, a win will keep them in contention for a place in the play-offs.
RCB under Virat Kohli will, however, be only playing for pride with an aim to finish on a winning note in their remaining three matches.
Kohli might be inclined to give some of the youngsters a go removing the non- performers.
After the high of last international season, the IPL has been a kind of a setback for skipper Kohli with his team letting him down pretty badly. Kohli himself has been like a lone-ranger standing amid a bunch of non-performers.
Punjab won at a canter crushing Delhi Daredevils by 10 wickets in their previous game. With RCB's morale at its lowest, this is the best chance for Punjab to register another facile win.
For the Glenn Maxwell-led side, Hashim Amla with 315 runs including a century has been in good form. Martin Guptill also looked in ominous touch during his 27-ball half-century against Delhi.
Punjab fans would be hoping for a big knock from Maxwell, who has been a disappointment this year, just managing 193 runs in nine matches, with unbeaten 44 as his highest.
Punjab will be hoping that pacers Sandeep Sharma and Varun Aaron can do a repeat act of their performance against Delhi.
They would also pin hopes on left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who has taken 10 wickets from nine matches.
For RCB, the problem has been the failure of their much vaunted batting line-up which comprise Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Kedar Jadhav. The top-four have failed to produce big runs collectively.
Fringe India players like Mandeep Singh and Stuart Binny have been big disappointments for the popular franchise.
The only silver lining for RCB has been the performance of their two leg-spinners -- Samuel Badree (9 wickets) and Yuzvendra Chahal (11 wickets).
However, their pacers have been far from impressive with Srinath Arvind (4), Adam Milne (3) and Aniket Choudhary (2) going for plenty.
The teams (from): Kings XI Punjab: Glenn Maxwell (capt), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh, Darren Sammy, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Nikhil Naik, Ishant Sharma, Armaan Jaffer, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Arman Jaffer, Anureet Singh, Mohit Sharma, K.C. Cariappa, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, T. Natrajan, Matt Henry, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Gurkeerat Mann, Rahul Tewatia.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (captain), AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Vishnu Vinod, Sreenath Arvind, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tymal Mills, Aniket Chaudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake.
Match starts at 8 pm
