IPL 2021 RR vs PBKS Match 4

image: BCCI

Today in the Indian Premier League, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings are going to fight for the two points in their first match of the season in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

In the second match between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals, the team won the toss chose to field and restrict the opponent to a lower score.

You can expect that same strategy today also on this ground. Just like in the last game the pitch may favour seamers and can easily score runs between 180-190 in the innings.

Rajasthan Royals

In the previous edition of the IPL in Dubai, Rajasthan Royals found it hard to win the matches even with good lower-middle order and a good bowling line up.

The team just managed to win 6 out of 14 matches on the league stage and finished last in the points table. There are a few matches that are lost just because of a lack of planning and implementation.

Rahul Tewatia, an unknown player before last year IPL match started to hit sixes and saved a few matches when the top and middle-order batsman failed.

The team management changed the entire stakes in the team by releasing their captain Steven Smith and others from the team and brought few new players.

 The most interesting buys are Chris Morris for 16.25 crores and Shivam Dubey for 4.4 crores. These all-rounders have to bring a good batting lineup for the team.

Here is the squad of Rajasthan Royals

Probable Playing 11

Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson (C), Mahipal Lormor, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Sreyas Gopal, Karthik Tyagi, Andrew Tye 

Punjab Kings

With a brand new team and brand new players, the franchise looks promising on the paper. The team brought new players for a huge price as they had a deep purse at the start of the auction.

The costliest buy for the team is a bowler, Jhye Richardson for 14 crores followed by another bowler Riley Meredith for 8 crores followed by an all-rounder Moises Henriques for 4.2 crores.

With these new buy's the team had a decent bowling lineup in the paper and with the addition of Shahrukh Khan for 5.25 crores the batting lineup might also improve.

Even though they fought hard for the victories the old team finished third last just top of Chennai Super Kings last year in Dubai.

Here is the Punjab Kings squad.

Probable playing 11 

KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Shahrukh Khan, Chris Jordan, Jhye Richardson, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami.