FANTASY PREVIEW
Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) get their Indian Premier League (IPL) season off the mark at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday (April 2). Both teams go into the contest with plenty of injuries in their squads, making it tough for them to pick the right combinations.
MI will not mind playing at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, given that they have won nine of their 12 games there. RCB, who have made it to the playoffs the last three seasons, will hope to get off to the perfect start playing in front of their home crowd for the first time in three years.
Ground details
The pacers have ruled the roost at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in T20 cricket since 2018, having picked up 60.4% of the wickets. They have conceded at 9.7 an over, and struck every 33.9 runs and 21 deliveries apart. The spinners may have had a lesser share of the wickets, but they have been far more economical (8), and have a runs-per-wicket ratio (29.2) than the pacers.
Chinnaswamy is considered to be a graveyard for the spinners. While they might be economical, they may not be as prolific in the wicket-taking department as the above stats depict.
The captain winning the toss might be tempted to bowl first. In T20s since 2018, the team batting second has gone on to win nine out of the 17 matches. The average winning score batting first in this period has been 192.
Suggested team
While you could go for the above team, you can choose your team from Cricket.com's Fantasy Research Centre. You can use this tool to build your team with the help of algorithms. Then, based on your preferences, the platform will guide you through creating the ideal fantasy XI.
Captaincy Suggestions
For small league: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Harshal Patel (vice-capt)
For grand league: Faf du Plessis (capt), Tilak Varma (vice-capt)
Stats that matter
Is there a better T20 batter than Suryakumar Yadav right now? He might be coming into the tournament at the back of three golden ducks in the ODIs against Australia, there’s little doubt of his prowess in the shortest format. Among those who have scored at least 1,000 runs in T20s since 2020, Suryakumar Yadav’s strike-rate of 172 is the highest. His 1,770 runs in this time frame has come at a staggering average of 47.84, which includes 13 fifties and three hundreds.
Harshal ‘Purple’ Patel has been the most consistent performer with the ball in the last couple of IPL seasons. In fact, no bowler has picked up more wickets than Harshal (51) in the tournament since 2021. Largely deployed at the death, Harshal’s wickets in this period have come at an economy rate of 7.9, striking once every 17 runs and 12.9 deliveries apart. 31 of Harshal’s 51 scalps have come in overs 16-20.
Grand League Punts
Only Shikhar Dhawan (1,705) and KL Rahul (1,424) have scored more runs than Faf du Plessis in the IPL since 2020. The RCB’s skipper has scored his runs at an impressive strike-rate of 135.5 and average of close to 39. He has also scored 13 fifties in this period in 45 innings, scoring a boundary every 5.7 deliveries.
20-year-old Tilak Verma had a splendid season last year, finishing as the second-highest run-getter for this side with 397 runs at a strike-rate of 131. He stood out against spinners having scored 195 runs against them at a strike-rate of 146 and got out to them just once.
Top Criclytics projections
Probable XI
RCB: Faf du Plessis (c), Finn Allen, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Reece Topley/David Willey, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj
MI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green, Tim David, Jofra Archer, Duan Jansen, Hrithik Shokeen/Shams Mulani, Ramandeep Singh, Kumar Kartikeya
