Rising Pune Supergiants haven’t had the best of starts to their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign and they will look to gather some momentum when they play their first home game on Friday against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Having registered only one win out of three games, the MS Dhoni-led side is currently placed sixth on the points table while Virat Kohli’s team, with similar results, is placed a spot below RPSG.

Supergiants began IPL 2016 on a good note as they came up with a clinical performance to defeat Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener. However, in the two games that followed, they weren’t quite up to the mark and failed to defend totals of 163 and 152 against Gujarat Lions and Kings XI Punjab respectively. Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have batted first in all their three games so far, posted a massive 227 that proved to be well beyond the reach of Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, despite being in a position to post similar totals against Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians, they faltered in the latter half of their batting, which meant that they too, like their opponents on Friday, haven’t defended well in their last two games.

Faf du Plessis has been doing the bulk of the scoring for the homeside, while the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Kevin Pietersen have also got the team off to promising starts. They, however, haven’t been able to translate that into bigger totals and have stumbled in the death overs. Against Gujarat Lions, they were 121 for 2 after 15 overs, but could manage only 42 runs in the last five overs. Against KXIP too they did not have an explosive finish, managing 43 in the last five overs to end up with a total of 152. The likes of Mitchell Marsh and Thisara Perera, as well as Steven Smith and Dhoni, are yet to make an impact and they will be eager to make their presence felt as soon as possible.

Among the bowlers, the spinners have fared well, but the same cannot be said of the seamers. Murugan Ashwin has looked impressive, Ravichandran Ashwin has done a tidy job, while Ankit Sharma, in the one game that he played, also kept things tight. However, the likes of Ishant Sharma, RP Singh and Perera haven’t really been on the mark, which has meant that the oppositions have been able to get away and the good work put in by the spinners haven’t materialised into good results. Dhoni and Co. will be hoping that the bowlers come up with a disciplined performance, which is imperative going up against the Royal Challengers, which vaunts of one of the best batting sides in the tournament.

Bangalore too have been facing a problem or two when it comes to batting in the second half of the innings. While Kohli and AB de Villiers have been doing a fine job at the top of the order, as soon as they are dismissed, the middle order batsmen haven’t been able to provide the thrust to the innings that could have propelled the team to bigger totals. Shane Watson, who occupies the crucial No. 4 slot, has looked good at that position, but the fact that he hasn’t been able to stay till the end has hurt them.

Bowling has always been the Achilles Heel for the Bangalore team and they have struggled to find the right combination for this season, with injuries to Mitchell Marsh and Samuel Badree making matters worse. Be it the seamers or the spinners, most of them have been on the expensive side. While it can be argued that the pitches have been loaded heavily against them, their waywardness has resulted in extra fodder for the opposition batsmen, and it is time that they start making amends.

The Supergiants, who last played against Kings XI Punjab, had a four-day gap ahead of the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, which they would have utilised by studying the pitch and the conditions and working out the combination accordingly. The last T20 hosted at this venue was the India-Sri Lanka game in February 2016. In that game, the wicket, surprisingly, aided the seamers, which is unlikely to be the case in this game. It remains to be seen if the Supergiants persist with three spinners or if they bring in an extra pacer.

Royal Challengers Bangalore, in the absence of Chris Gayle, made as many as six changes for the game against Mumbai. Head, who was one of their overseas picks, fared well in that game and he is likely to retain his place, as might Kane Richardson. With Gayle unavailable for this game, KL Rahul, who got RCB off to a quick-fire start against MI, might get another go at the opening slot and he is likely to continue handling the wicket-keeping duties. South African spinner, Tabraiz Shamsi has replaced Samuel Badree in the RCB squad, and it will be interesting if the chinaman bowler gets picked for his debut.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore (From): Virat Kohli(c), Lokesh Rahul(w), AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Travis Head, Sarfaraz Khan, Kedar Jadhav, Harshal Patel, Kane Richardson, Iqbal Abdulla, Varun Aaron, David Wiese, Vikramjeet Malik, Abu Nechim, Stuart Binny, Sreenath Aravind, Mandeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sachin Baby, Adam Milne, Vikas Tokas, Akshay Karnewar, Praveen Dubey, Tabraiz Shamsi, Parvez Rasool, Chris Gayle

Rising Pune Supergiants (From): Ajinkya Rahane, Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith, Thisara Perera, MS Dhoni(w/c), Irfan Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ankit Sharma, Murugan Ashwin, Mitchell Marsh, Albie Morkel, Saurabh Tiwary, Ashok Dinda, Peter Handscomb, RP Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Rajat Bhatia, Adam Zampa, Scott Boland, Ishwar Pandey, Deepak Chahar, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains