Gayle boost for RCB in bottom-half jostle

Saturday, April 30, 2016
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)

Chris Jordan was an analyst for Sky Sports when Royal Challengers Bangalore played Sunrisers Hyderabad in their season opener at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Three weeks later, Jordan is set to fly to India, and is touted as one of the solutions to the team's bowling woes after being signed as a replacement for the injured Mitchell Starc.

Chris Gayle, meanwhile, has re-joined the squad after his paternity leave, and is expected to regain his berth in the XI. That could leave the team management with a selection headache.

With AB de Villiers and Shane Watson certainties, barring injuries, the overseas slots that could be up for grabs are the ones held by Kane Richardson and Tabraiz Shamsi, the South African chinaman bowler. If they decide to play Shamsi, who has impressed in his two outings, Royal Challengers will have to depend on their Indian pacers. That will mean the onus will once again be on the batsmen to do the running.

Virat Kohli averages 110 and strikes at 141 in T20s this year. De Villiers has crunched 269 runs in five matches this season, including three half-centuries, at an average and strike rate of 53.80 and 170.25. Yet Royal Challengers are towards the bottom of the table largely because of their bowling.

Shamsi has caught the eye with his skiddy googly as well as the bus-driver jig, but Richardson, Varun Aaron, Iqbal Abdulla, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Stuart Binny, S Aravind, Adam Milne, David Wiese have all leaked over nine runs an over.

Sunrisers are coming off a batting collapse against Rising Pune Supergiants. The middle order is Sunrisers' Achilles heel, and it was exposed on the night David Warner endured his first single-digit score of the tournament. The average for Sunrisers' Nos. 3 to 5 this season is 12.50 - the lowest among all teams. Their bowling, though, looks healthy, especially after the return of Ashish Nehra from a groin injury.

Sunrisers Hyderabad LWWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Royal Challengers Bangalore LWLLW

Not only does Mustafizur Rahman snap his wrists for the slower cutter, he also does so for his stock ball. In fact, he rolled his wrists over the yorker that cut in and floored Andre Russell as well as his middle stump. "The Fizz" should make for a mouth-watering duel against Royal Challengers' blockbuster top three, provided Warner does not hold him back.

Chris Gayle has not moved to double figures since his 47-ball ton against England in the World Twenty20 last month. With Jordan all set to join the squad and Shane Watson and Shamsi strangling the opposition, there is pressure on Gayle to fire immediately.

Sunrisers may consider leaving out left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma for legspinner Karn Sharma.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (probable): 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan 3, Eoin Morgan, 4 Aditya Tare, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Moises Henriques, 7 Naman Ojha (wk), 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Karn Sharma/Bipul Sharma, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Ashish Nehra

Gayle's return could mean a forced break for Richardson. They may also bring in Varun Aaron and Harshal Patel for Kedhar Jadhav and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (probable): 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers, 4 KL Rahul (wk), 5 Shane Watson, 6 Sarfaraz Khan 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Iqbal Abdulla, 9 Harshal Patel/Yuzvendra Chahal 10 Tabraiz Shamsi 11 Varun Aaron

The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium has offered help to the quicks and grip for cutters and slower balls. Saturday is expected to be a hot day, with a maximum of 43 degrees Celsius.