With batting maestro Virat Kohli back at his absolute best and skipper Faf du Plessis leading from the front with 600-plus runs this season, Royal Challengers Bangaore (RCB) will hope their dazzling opening duo fires in this must-win game for them against Gujarat Titans. Currently placed at fourth position, Royal Challengers Bangalore also have a better net run rate (NRR) of 0.180 than Mumbai Indians (-0.128), who take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Sunday’s first game, and Rajasthan Royals.
Besides playing in front of their beloved home crowd that will back them vociferously come Sunday, the other advantage for du Plessis’ side is that they feature in the last game of the league round on Sunday evening, by which time RCB would know the outcome of the duel between MI and SRH in Mumbai.
However, it will mean nothing if they lose to defending champions Gujarat Titans, a formidable outfit without an iota of doubt and led admirably by star all-rounder Hardik Pandya throughout the season, the reward of which is a top-two finish in the league stage with a real chance of retaining the title they won in their inaugural season.
7 weeks of thrilling contests and it all boils down to tonight! _
The last game of the league stage, fate in our own hands, and aren’t we glad to be playing for the playoffs qualification in front of our home fans! _#PlayBold #____RCB #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/ZHro9nUHYw— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) May 21, 2023
While Gujarat Titans lead the pecking order with 18 points after winning nine matches and losing four, RCB are equal with MI, RR on points ahead of their game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Entering this game, both teams are coming off big wins, GT over Sunrisers Hyderabad by 34 runs and RCB by eight wickets over the 2016 champions by eight wickets after a sparkling hundred by Kohli, his sixth overall across IPL.
Dream11 Prediction RCB vs GT
Captain: Faf du Plessis
Vice-captain: Shubman Gill
Wicketkeeper: Wriddhiman Saha
Batters: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Shubman Gill, David Miller
All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Hardik Pandya
Bowlers: Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Rashid Khan, Yash Dayal
RCB vs GT Probable XIs
RCB Probable XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Michael Bracewell, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj
GT Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Dasun Shanaka, Rahul Tewatia, Mohit Sharma, Rashid Khan, Yash Dayal, Noor Ahmad
RCB vs GT Full Squad
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mohammed Siraj, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Finn Allen, Karn Sharma, Anuj Rawat, Michael Bracewell, Siddarth Kaul, Sonu Yadav, Manoj Bhandage, Wayne Parnell, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudharsan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Kane Williamson, Odean Smith, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma
