Royal Challengers Bangalore will be looking to keep their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 playoff dreams alive while SunRisers Hyderabad will aim to finish their campaign on a winning note as the two teams face each other at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday. RCB need to win both of their remaining games to book their place in the IPL playoffs. The Faf du Plessis-led side have been far too inconsistent, but their win over Rajasthan Royals in their previous match has given them a massive boost in the playoffs race. SRH, on the other hand, sit bottom of the points table and are already out of the top 4 race.
Alongside skipper Faf du Plessis, Kohli is one of the top-scorers for RCB but after back-to-back failures -- 18 against Rajasthan Royals and 1 against Mumbai Indians -- the maestro would be looking to produce his best against SRH and help his side's cause.
Du Plessis has been leading the side from the front and is in scintillating form, occupying the top spot in run-getter's list with 631 runs from 12 games at an average of 57.36.
Kohli is the next best RCB batter with 438 runs, averaging 39.81 with six fifties. But unlike Du Plessis, Kohli has not been consistent enough and has struggled with his strike-rate at times.
SRH, on the other hand, will play for pride after becoming the second team to crash out of the tournament.
SRH would look to give their fans something to cheer about by registering wins in their remaining two games.
It has been lacklustre outing for SRH this season, both in batting as well as bowling department.
SRH Predicted XI (including impact player): Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Sanvir Singh, Abdul Samad, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan
RCB Predicted XI (including impact player): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj, Karn Sharma
(With PTI Inputs)