IPL2024: RCB and KKR plan to change direction to boost their campaign

In an IPL 2024 encounter here on Friday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders will need to make a swift course correction to add steam to their campaigns. Their victories in their respective previous games may have alleviated the initial worries, but faults still exist.

While the Knight Riders edged Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs to secure some early points, the Royal Challengers upset the Punjab Kings by four wickets.

However, some of the concerns have not really subsided since we entered the points table, especially with regard to the middle and top-order batting.

Though star batsman Virat Kohli’s elegant fifty on an exceptionally gripping Chinnaswamy surface when Bengaluru was chasing 177 against Punjab the other night may have made the dugout pleased, it isn’t the whole story.

Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Green, Rajat Patidar, and skipper Faf du Plessis haven’t yet reached their full potential, so they had to depend on late-game appearances from Dinesh Karthik and “Impact Player” Mahipal Lomror to win over PBKS.

On paper, at least, the Kolkatan bowling team is much more formidable, and the RCB might find themselves in serious difficulty if their front-line batsmen put up such a lacklustre performance.

Following the smoothing of these rough edges, RCB can turn their attention to their bowling unit, which has to address a few gaps despite strong performances from pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal against Punjab.

Alzarri Joseph, the pacer, is still a waste of money. Given his statistics (0/38, 1/43), the RCB think tank may decide to substitute England’s left-arm quick Reece Topley, who excels at white-ball cricket, for the West Indian for this game.

There is an eerily similar tale in The Knight Riders. At the Eden Gardens, their middle and top order, which included skipper Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, and Nitish Rana, went awry against SRH.

To record a competitive total, impact sub Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, and Andre Russell—the 6, 7, and 8—had to work together.

Shreyas, who is essential to their batting strategies, was removed for a two-ball duck, but his return to Chinnaswamy may come as a comfort since he has played well in his past two innings of white-ball cricket here.

Before hitting a 53 against Australia in the fifth Twenty20 International in December of last year, the graceful right-hander amassed an undefeated 128 against the Netherlands during the World Cup.

Following a mediocre performance with the bat, Narine redeemed himself as a bowler with an economical spell of 1/19, but their record purchase, pacer Mitchell Starc, and Varun Chakravarthy did not impress, giving up more than 50 runs in their four overs.

The KKR think tank would want to see the first-choice pacer and spinner find their range as soon as possible, but they may not be very concerned given their campaign is still in its early stages.

The Knights are unlikely to alter their starting lineup for this game unless they choose to try out young leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who impressed during KKR’s preseason games.

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, and Saurav Chauhan. Faf du Plessis (c).

Shreyas Iyer (captain), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman are the Kolkata Knight Riders.