A contest of contrasts beckons as Royals return to Jaipur stronghold

Big image – The distinction, and the similarity

Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants are completely different but identical. They head into this top-of-the-table conflict with contrasting current outcomes. Royals’ final outing was a come-from-behind win in opposition to Gujarat Titans whereas Super Giants’ loss in opposition to Punjab Kings was solely their second for the reason that begin of IPL 2022 batting first.

And that is simply the beginning of the contrasts. Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal rating runs at 11.20 per over as a pair for Royals – the quickest amongst openers at IPL 2023. Kyle Mayers and KL Rahul go at 8.43 for Super Giants and are solely quicker than Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rahmanullah Gurbaz and N Jagadeesan amongst those that have opened collectively a number of instances this yr. Subsequently Royals rating 9.76 on common per over within the powerplay – the second quickest – versus Super Giants’ 8.03 – third slowest.

In reality, the mixed strike fee of the highest 4 Super Giants – Mayers, Rahul, Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya – is 126.01, considerably decrease than Royals’ 149.21. They are largely pushed by Mayers, who tees off in opposition to the brand new ball and strikes at 168. Rahul’s restrained strategy and Hooda’s struggles haven’t helped.

On the opposite hand, every of Royals’ top-order batters has seemed to consciously take the aggressive route. Apart from Buttler and Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag and R Ashwin have batted within the high 4 for them.

Where the 2 groups are fairly related is of their ending prowess – thanks largely to Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer. Nos. 5 to eight for Super Giants rating a cumulative 167 per 100 balls whereas these batters for Royals strike at near 160.

Despite having a unique beginning methodology, Super Giants are second on the desk behind Royals. Royals’ homecoming on the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur – they performed their first two dwelling video games in Guwahati – could possibly be an thrilling conflict of contrasts.

IPL 2023 type information

Rajasthan Royals WWWLW (final 5 matches, most up-to-date first)
Lucknow Super Giants LWWLW

Team news – More bench time for Quinton de Kock?

Mayers has been a serious motive behind Super Giants’ fast begins and it might imply Quinton de Kock spends extra time on the bench.

Buttler’s finger damage noticed him being subbed out by way of the Impact Player rule in opposition to Chennai Super Kings however he fielded in Royals’ final outing.

Toss and Impact Player technique

Rajasthan Royals
Riyan Parag was unnoticed in opposition to Super Kings, when Royals opted to go in with an additional bowling choice even of their bat-first XI. That apart, they’ve usually subbed out a batter for a bowler (Sandeep Sharma or Kuldeep Sen) in every of the matches and that pattern might maybe proceed. But each Padikkal and Parag have had a largely robust time on this competitors. Will that power Royals to have a look at Joe Root, who can chip in with some offspin in opposition to a line-up that has sufficient left-handers?

Probable bat-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Butter, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Devdutt Padikkal, 5 Riyan Parag, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Dhruv Jurel 8 R Ashwin, 9 Adam Zampa 10 Trent Boult, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Probable field-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Butter, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Dhruv Jurel 7 R Ashwin, 8 Adam Zampa 9 Trent Boult, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Sandeep Sharma

Lucknow Super Giants
Ayush Badoni has been Super Giants’ Impact Player, besides within the final sport, once they opted to carry Ok Gowtham in for Mayers, who was already dismissed. If they’re chasing, they’d maybe sub a bowler out.

Possible bat-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Ayush Badoni, 8 Ok Gowtham, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Mark Wood

Possible bowl-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Ok Gowtham, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Yudhvir Singh/Amit Mishra