Playing on a new venue, Lucknow, instead of their home ground of M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru because of inclement weather, Royal Challengers Bengaluru take on Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday with a shot the top spot in position.
RCB are currently second in the points table and Gujarat Titans' defeat to LSG on Thursday. SRH are out of playoff contention and will only be playing for pride.
RCB have roped in New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert as a temporary replacement for Jacob Bethell who will return to England for a white-ball series against the West Indies.
Seifert previously had a short stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2021, where he played just one game. He moved to Delhi Capitals in the following year and was part of the playing XI in two games, scoring 24 runs.
Another boost for RCB is that Phil Salt has recovered from illness and returned and joined the squad.
Salt was sick for a while, so it has given him a little chance to get home. He has recharged his batteries and he is back at full force. Of course, everyone in the competition and all our fans would have wanted the competition to play out as planned, but bigger things were at hand and we have had to roll with that
Flower also said that they are not worried that they did not get enough match practice following the break.
We are not too concerned about that. I think the boys have worked really well over the entire season in the build-up to the first match of the season and they have played some superb cricket throughout the season. Yes, a little break now, but for a couple of our players that has actually been a healthy thing. Rajat Patidar for one has given his right hand a little bit of time to settle after getting quite a bad knock. So, he is fit to bat, which is great.
RCB have qualified for the playoffs with two league games in their hand. They are currently sitting second with 17 points in 12 games. After playing against SRH on Friday, RCB will play their last league game against Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on May 27. They will be hoping for another big contribution from Virat Kohli so that he can remain in the Orange Cup race.
SRH have also got some boost as Travis Head, their Australian opener, has recovered from Covid-19 and is available for selection.
Head had forged a good partnership with Abhishek Sharma in IPL 2024 but this season while Sharma had struck some big ones, Head has not been able to score as many runs as he would have liked.
SRH's bowling too has not worked but now they are hoping to do well in this match.
RCB came into the match with four wins and one no-result, SRH have won two and lost two while one match was washed out.
Overall, in 25 matches played between the two teams, SRH have won 13 matches while RCG emerged victorious in 11 matches, One game ended in no-result.
Probable playing XIs:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal, Rajat Patidar (capt), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Lungi Ngidi,
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (capt), Harshal Patel, Harsh Dubey, Eshan Malinga, Jaydev Unadkat.
