IPL 2017, Preview, RCB vs GL: Bangalore, Gujarat Both Desperate to Find Winning Formula

If there is anything that is common between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Gujarat Lions (GL) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 10, it is their desperate quest for points. With half the tournament over, GL are still at last position, while RCB aren't doing much better either. They had to be satisfied with one point after the rained-out match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bangalore on Tuesday. Given their precarious position, even that one point could end being gold dust.

As things stand, Bangalore have six matches left in the league and need to win all of them to have any realistic chance of ending up among the top four at the end of the league. Presently they have five points from eight matches.

GL have just four points with five matches to go, and their lot isn't any different either.

But given that one of the two teams will lose, weather permitting, this is where the IPL 10 takes a turn as one of the two will almost surely be heading for the exit.

Another point of interest to be seen is if Irfan Pathan makes an appearance. He was roped in as a replacement for the injured Dwayne Bravo.

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (capt), Tymal Mills, Aniket Chaudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Vishnu Vinod, Sreenath Arvind, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi.

Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (capt), Akshadeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Irfan Pathan, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhaval Kulkarni, Shivil Kaushik, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Praveen Kumar, Brandon McCullum, Munaf Patel, Pratham Singh, Jason Roy, Shadab Jakati, Pradeep Sangwan, Shelly Shaurya, Nathusingh, Dwayne Smith, Tejas Baroka and Andrew Tye.

(With PTI inputs)