Royal Challengers Bangalore are the most in-form team of the tournament, having won their opening three matches.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Thursday, became the second Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise to play 200 league games. The Bangalore-based franchise made its 200th appearance in the cash-rich league when skipper Virat Kohli walked down for the toss of the IPL 2021 league encounter against Rajasthan Royals (RR). RCB are the second team after defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) to play 200 games in the league.
Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers and Harshal Patel have been the top performers for the Bangalore-based franchise so far. Maxwell is the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament at this point. That is certainly commendable considering the fact that RCB’s three games so far have been held in Chennai. De Villiers boasts of the highest strike rate among players who have faced more than 25 deliveries in the tournament. RCB have found middle-order destruction and stability which is something they missed in the 2020 edition of the tournament.
Harshal Patel has been the match-winner with the ball. The speedster from Haryana has accounted for nine wickets at an economy rate of 5.75 so far. Harshal has transformed into a match-winner who the captain can rely upon at any moment in the game for tight overs.
RR have been unfortunate in their campaign so far. Ben Stokes and Liam Livingstone are ruled out of the rest of the tournament. While Stokes sustained an injury in the franchise’s opening game against Punjab Kings (PBKS), Livingstone cited bubble fatigue as the reason behind his desire to leave. However, the performances of their left-arm fast bowling trio – Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya and Jaydev Unadkat have been quite impressive.
Shreyas Gopal will be the player to watch out for, considering his excellent record against RCB skipper Virat Kohli, De Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal.
