Why are RCB wearing green jersey for today’s IPL 2024 match against KKR?

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are locking horns with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 36th match of IPL 2024 on Sunday (April 21) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. All RCB players have sported special green jerseys for this game, not the usual red and blue threads.

It is an annual tradition of the RCB franchise in IPL as part of their "Go Green" initiative. They aim to promote environmental sustainability and create awareness about ecological issues through their gesture. The Royal Challengers have been wearing green jerseys for a game in a season since IPL 2011.

RCB has played 13 games in green jerseys over the years and managed to win only four games while losing on 12 occasions. One game in 2015 against the Delhi Capitals ended without a result. They faced KKR twice in those games in 2017 and 2021. The Knight Riders won those matches comfortably by six and nine wickets, respectively.

Royal Challengers captain Faf du Plessis won the toss in today's contest and opted to field first. He opened up that the statistics of day games at the venue influenced their decision to chase. Du Plessis said:

"We will chase. This is probably a chasing ground. Even the stats in a day game. I am really fan of batting first in the heat but I don't think it's not quite the same when you go to Mumbai or Chennai as it tends to cool down in Kolkata towards the evening.

"It feels like how much the game of T20 is missing. The teams are batting so strongly that 60-70 is the norm in the powerplay. I think we have three changes. Cam Green and Siraj comes back. Karn Sharma is in. Once you get the flow back you get the confidence back."

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RCB Playing XI:

Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Will Jacks, Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, and Mohammed Siraj.

Impact Subs: Suyash Prabhudessai, Anuj Rawat, Himanshu Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak, and Swapnil Singh.

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KKR Playing XI:

Phil Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy.

Impact Subs: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz.