Kings XI Punjab vs Rising Pune Supergiants:
Transfers made – 1; Transfers remaining – 75
David Warner out – Faf du Plessis in
Ashish Reddy out – Murugan Ashwin in
Batting captain – Faf du Plessis; Bowling captain – Murugan Ashwin
Batting captaincy options – Ajinkya Rahane, Faf du Plessis and Kevin Pietersen
Considering Pietersen bats below two potential captaincy options, he gets ruled out. I am going with Du Plessis, the more destructive of the remaining two.
Bowling captaincy options – No outstanding players
Murugan Ashwin appears to be the best of the available lot, given his form and how badly Kings XI played Amit Mishra.
Nature of the deck – Flat
Kings XI Punjab: As discussed in previous articles, they are paying the penalty now for some awful auction strategies. They could still compete on true batting decks, but look clear favourites for the wooden spoon.
Despite his woeful performances so far, KXIP could just stick with Glenn Maxwell. Meanwhile, Mitchell Johnson is likely to make way for either Kyle Abbott or Marcus Stoinis. Pacer Anureet Singh could get a look in as well. With both Murali Vijay and Manan Vohra in from, Shaun Marsh – batting at No.3 – needs quite a few things to go his way to produce returns, and it isn’t worth the risk.
Rising Pune Supergiants: The quality of the Supergiants’ top order will help them surprise stronger teams on a consistent basis; their bowling attack, however, will make sure they fall short of playoffs. I am expecting them to get better when Albie Morkel and Irfan Pathan come in for Steve Smith and RP Singh, which could easily happen today as MS Dhoni – after the defeat against Gujarat Lions – was seen going on and on about how they had got their combination wrong.
Uncapped picks: Manan Vohra, Murugan Ashwin, and Rajat Bhatia
The only reason I am not getting in Vohra is that he doesn’t fit into my team.
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Delhi Daredevils
Transfers made – 5; Transfers remaining – 70
Faf du Plessis out – Chris Gayle in
Dwayne Bravo out – AB de Villiers in
Mustafizur Rahman out – Quinton de Kock in
Jos Buttler out – Shane Watson in
Ajinkya Rahane out – Virat Kohli in
(uncapped) Murugan Ashwin out – Harshal Patel in
Batting captain – Virat Kohli; Bowling captain – Shane Watson
Batting captaincy options – Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock and Chris Gayle.
The Daredevils are one of the teams ideally suited for Gayle to do the thing that he usually does; except for Morris’s pace, there is not a lot that can trouble him in this encounter at Chinnaswamy.
De Kock and Kohli are the safest of the four options, though. Considering the fact that they are as likely to score a century as the rest, I would settle for one of them as my captain. The thing that keeps me away from De Villiers is the likelihood of the RCB openers playing out the majority of the overs.
Bowling captaincy options – Shane Watson and Yuzvendra Chahal.
I would go with Watson since he could get some cheap wickets at the death, as against Chahal who needs to purely rely on his skills to get rid of batsmen on this deck.
Nature of the deck – Flat
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Having got their batting order right, Royal Challengers are one of the early favourites for the title this season. While Watson batting at 4 does reduce his T20 batting potential, it is more than compensated by the fact that the very move enables both Kohli and De Villiers to have a larger say on the outcome of the game; this is in addition to the Australian all-rounder’s presence providing some solidity in the lower middle order that RCB have been craving for quite a few seasons now.
Delhi Daredevils: With JP Duminy back, the Daredevils look a much better side. They will, however, need to find a spot for Mohammad Shami to strengthen their bowling attack. Coming to this particular match, the think-tank needs to be more aggressive and send Carlos Brathwaite up the order if they hope to compete. As good as De Kock and Duminy are, you need a 20-ball 50 from someone to cross the 220-230 odd mark, which is the least that can keep them in the game today.
Uncapped picks: Yuzvendra Chahal, Shreyas Iyer, and Harshal Patel.
Sarfaraz Khan bats too low, and hence I don’t think there is any value in picking him on an easy batting deck.
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