New era RCB face Punjab's batting might at unfamiliar DY Patil
Agarwal's men boast a lot of power-hitting talent, but will be without Bairstow for their season opener
What kind of Kohli, the batter, will we see this time around? • BCCI/IPL
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Likely XIs
Strategy punt
- David Willey is a powerplay expert. His record - 81 wickets in 139 innings - suggests he almost guarantees you an early wicket. And with Hazlewood out, he could be the perfect new-ball bowler for RCB. Plus, given the DY Patil stadium actually assists pace bowling, there's even a chance that the England left-armer might do something that's been impossible lately - swing the white cricket ball.
- A lot of teams may resort to taking the pace off to contain the Royal Challengers line-up. Among 20-plus players to have scored 100-plus runs against spin last season, Kohli had the lowest strike-rate (100 from 10 innings) and du Plessis had the third-lowest (108.08 in 12 innings). Dinesh Karthik's average of 20 against spin was the fourth lowest for a batter in IPL 2021 (min 10 innings). Punjab will be eager to exploit this weakness, especially since they won't have to worry about Maxwell throwing a spanner into the works.
Stats that matter
- The DY Patil stadium has hosted 17 IPL matches so far. Ten of those have been won by the chasing team and you'll know why when you see the average first-innings score: 147.
- Agarwal will be captaining a cricket team at senior level for only the fourth time in his career. And while a lack of experience like that can be a challenge to overcome, it must help that the 31-year old now knows his game inside out. Agarwal has become especially good at pacing his innings and is an absolute menace in the middle overs (7-16) with a strike rate 158.68. Among those with at least 50 runs in this period since IPL 2019, only four others fare better.
- du Plessis loves playing against Punjab. His average - 61 - and number of fifties - 7 - are both way higher (42 vs KKR and 3 vs RCB) than his records against any other IPL team.
- Sandeep Sharma has dismissed Kohli an IPL record seven times.
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo