IPL 2018 Fantasy Guru: What your team should look like for RR vs KXIP
Subs used – 1; Subs remaining – 22
AB de Villiers out – Jos Buttler in
Manan Vohra out – Suryakumar Yadav in (uncapped player trick employed)
Uncapped player preference order: Krishnappa Gowtham, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tripathi
Captain – KL Rahul
Captaincy preference order: KL Rahul, Jos Buttler, Chris Gayle, Jofra Archer, Sanju Samson, Mujeeb Zadran
Differential – Ben Stokes
Multipliers remaining - 2
Guru’s team ahead of RR vs KXIP: KL Rahul, J Buttler, C Gayle, S Samson, V Kohli, S Yadav, J Archer, K Gowtham, M Zadran, S Kaul, B Kumar
With KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mujeeb Zadran, Sanju Samson and Jofra Archer already in my side, Jos Buttler is the only other player who interests me. The England wicketkeeper-batsman looked in glorious touch in the last match, and I do not want to risk keeping him out when I can create a spot for him in my team. Also, with Rajasthan Royals playing four times in the next ten matches, you can carry him along too.
Given the role that Andrew Tye plays for Kings XI Punjab, it will always be worth taking him. All you need to do is keep carrying him over, and as it always happens with death bowlers, they will get you the returns worth the substitution.
Ben Stokes continues to fail despite looking promising in patches, and at this stage of the competition, I see it as a needless risk to bring him in. Ajinkya Rahane could give you a 130 SR 50 at his best, and there are both better and more destructive options around in the tournament to waste substitutions on him right now.
I employ my uncapped player trick here to bring in Suryakumar Yadav, as I already have Krishnappa Gowtham for this match and I don’t see any of the other uncapped players involved today doing better than those in action tomorrow.
As far as team changes are concerned, Mayank Agarwal is the only player whose spot is under threat in Kings XI, with Akshdeep Nath waiting in the wings. The Royals, on the other hand, have plenty of headaches, but with no standout replacements available, they can't make wholesale changes. D'Arcy Short, however, should have played his last IPL match this season.