IPL 2018: RCB vs KXIP - 5 player battles to look out for
The 8th match of this year’s IPL will be played in Bangalore and it will be between three-time runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Kings XI Punjab. Both sides have two of the strongest squads in the tournament but have begun their respective campaigns on contrasting notes.
While Kings XI Punjab defeated Delhi Daredevils in their tournament opener, RCB lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders in theirs.
This will be the 19th IPL encounter between the two sides with KXP leading the head-to-head by 10-8. Last season, Kings XI won both their matches against the Royal Challengers. This season, it will be pretty interesting to see who comes out on top as both teams are filled with top-quality cricketers.
The match is bound to be an interesting contest and there will definitely be some interesting player battles to look out for. Here are 5 player battles to watch out for in today’s match between RCB and KXIP.
#5 Karun Nair vs Yuzvendra Chahal
Karun Nair had a brilliant start to his IPL campaign by smashing a 33-ball 50 against Delhi Daredevils at Mohali. Yuzvendra Chahal, on the other hand, had a forgetful start to his tournament as he conceded 29 runs from three overs against Kolkata Knight Riders at Kolkata.
Either way, both players are integral entities for their team and have been in pretty decent form so far. Nair has averaged 42.9 with the bat in T20s this year so far, and scored T20 centuries at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy against Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand.
This year, Chahal hasn’t been at his consistent best in T20s but produced a couple of fine performances for India, the most notable of them being a spell of 3/18 against Bangladesh at the Nidahas Trophy final.
Expected to come in at No. 3 or 4, a lot of KXIP’s batting hopes will be pinned on Nair, and Chahal will be needed to send him back as early as possible. Besides their talents and abilities, a huge reason why Nair vs Chahal will be watchable will be the fact that both players are well acquainted with the Chinnaswamy pitch.
While Chahal has been a regular for RCB since 2014, Nair has played the entirety of his domestic cricket career at Bangalore while playing for Karnataka.