An all-win record and a better bowling attack make Rajasthan Royals the overwhelming favourites in their home match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday.
Rajasthan have been flying high winning all three of their matches in IPL 2024 so far, while RCB have has a stuttering start, managing a solitary victory in four outings.
Besides the sparkling form of young Riyan Parag with the bat, Rajasthan have also benefitted from the way their key bowlers — Trent Boult, Nadre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal — have bowled.
In contrast, RCB are still waiting for their best bet with the ball, Mohammed Siraj, to find his rhythm, while the others have also looked quite ordinary.
The bigger concern for RCB though is their batting, which was supposed to be their strength. They are packed with talent and power in the batting department and yet Virat Kohli has been the only one who has done something of note so far in this IPL. While Kohli aggregates 144 in four games, the next best in the RCB roster is keeper-batter Anuj Rawat, who totals 69.
That sums up RCB’s sorry story so far. For a line-up which has the likes Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green among others, it is almost criminal to bat the way RCB have done so far.
Like Steve Smith said, the collective failure of the RCB batters has put Kohli “under a lot of pressure”. “He (Kohli) needs the other key batters to stand up with him, and if they do that, they can turn things around for their season,” former Australia captain Smith said on Star Sports.
Not that Rajasthan do not have any worries around their batting line-up. While Riyan (181 runs, 2 fifties) has batted like a dream and captain Sanju Samson has also looked in good touch, Rajasthan would be concerned with how openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler have struggled so far. Yashasvi has failed to replicate the success he had in the lead-up to this IPL, while Buttler seems a little lost.
But Rajasthan, winners of the inaugural IPL in 2008, can afford to bank on their in-form bowlers to call the shots against RCB’s shaky batting line-up. Unless, of course, the power trio of Kohli, Du Plessis and Maxwell decide to bat to their true potential.
