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IPL 2023 is slowly but steadily getting to the mid-tournament stage, which is an important phase as far as the teams are concerned. All the teams have played at least 5 games and the points table is extremely crowded at the moment. Two teams who are stuck in the middle are the Punjab Kings with Shikhar Dhawan at the helm and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are led by Faf du Plessis.
PBKS have won 3 of their 5 games but have lost their last two games and will be desperate to get back to winning ways. RCB, on the other hand, have lost three and won two and have been quite inconsistent. Familiar problems have come back to haunt them this season too, with their death bowling letting them down once again.
Faf du Plessis will understand that his side need to notch up a string of wins in order to have a comfortable ride in the tournament. RCB will need to figure out their best playing XI sooner rather than later. With both the middle-order teams clashing in match 27 of IPL 2023 later today (April 20), below are three changes that we recommend RCB should make for their game against PBKS:
#1 David Willey in for Wayne Parnell
David Willey has featured in 2 games this season, picking up as many wickets. His bowling overall has been outstanding but was left out of the team in favor of Wayne Parnell, who came in as a replacement for Reece Topley. It was difficult to comprehend the decision at the time and it still hasn't made sense.
Parnell has taken 5 wickets in 3 games but has conceded runs at an economy of almost 10 which has not helped RCB's cause. Willey also comes with batting credentials, which RCB really missed against CSK.
#2 Sidharth Kaul in for Harshal Patel
Harshal Patel has been a revelation for RCB over the last couple of seasons. However, his form of late has been quite disappointing. He has bowled 18.2 overs this season and has conceded runs at an economy of over 10. His execution has been terrible, which has resulted in multiple full tosses. In the last game against CSK, he had to be pulled out of the attack after he bowled two beamers in the same over.
Faf du Plessis and Mike Hesson may consider bringing the experienced Sidharth Kaul into the playing XI in Harshal's place. Kaul, 32, has a decent IPL record and is an experienced cricketer. He was bought by RCB ahead of IPL 2022 but hasn't played too many games for the franchise.
#3 Anuj Rawat in for Mahipal Lomror
Mahipal Lomror has played three games so far in this year's IPL, scoring just 26 runs, including a 5-ball duck against Chennai Super Kings. Overall, he has featured in 21 games and has an average of under 20 coupled with a strike rate of 126.84. Those are certainly not impressive numbers and he has exposed various technical defficiencies over the last couple of seasons.
RCB may consider bringing in Anuj Rawat into the mix at the expense of Lomror. Rawat was used as an impact player on a couple of occasions but couldn't find any success. He was used as a finisher, which is not something that comes naturally to him. Perhaps a role in the top-order will bear good results for RCB.
