It's the first sunday of the IPL and we are at Jaipur where Royals from Rajasthan will be up against Lucknow Super Giants. It promises to be a cracker of a game.
Rajasthan Royals:
The Royals started on a very good note last year with 5 wins in their first 6 games and then faltered winning just 2 in the next 8 and finished 5th. They had themselves to blame last year. Lost some really close games and missed out narrowly to seal the playoff spot.
This year they have bought in a middle order batsmen from Vidarbha Shubham Yadav who looks promising and they have bolstered their middle order by buying Rovman Powell for nearly 8 cr. Riyan Parag is in the form of his life. If Riyan doesn't score this year, he will never score. RR have invested so heavily on him that its his time to pay them back for their trust. Jaiswal seems to be doing nothing wrong. Amassed 700 against England in the recently concluded test series and will now be looking to get that orange cap when he opens with Buttler this season. They have bought Nandre Burger this year who can be a great back up to ever reliable Trent Boult.
Lucknow Super Giants:
Lucknow came very close last year. They have been pretty consistent since their introduction to the IPL. They have let go off Gautam Gambhir this season but still overall their squad looks stronger than last year. They have traded in a specialist opener in Devdutt Paddikal while adding more firepower in the bowling line up after buying Shivam Mavi and David Willey. They would certainly look to go a position further than the top 3 finishes in the last couple of years.
Players to watch out for:
Sanju Samson
Samson has never had an outstanding IPL. If RR are to win the league, they will surely want Samson to have a 600 plus runs edition. Samson has always blown hot and cold across editions but it is high time he scores consistently.
Ravi Bishnoi
The best spinner in the country currently when it comes to limited overs cricket must be waiting for his chance to make that world cup squad. He is very difficult to read off the hand as well as the pitch. KL Rahul has a gem with him. Bishnoi can turn the game at any moment. He can bowl in the powerplays, middle overs and also at the death.
Playing 11:
Rajasthan Royals
Jos Buttler (wk)
Yashaswi Jaiswal
Sanju Samson
Riyan Parag
Shimron Hetmyer
Dhruv Jurel
Ravichandran Ashwin
Trent Boult
Kuldeep Sen
Sandeep Sharma
Yuzvendra Chahal
Lucknow Super Giants:
Devdutt Paddikal
Quinton De Kock (wk)
Deepak Hooda
KL Rahul (c)
Nicholas Pooran
Marcus Stoinis
Krunal Pandya
Ravi Bishnoi
Naveen Ul Haq
Shivam Mavi
Mohsin Khan
Dream 11 team as given below:
