He may have quit his captaincy duties but all eyes will still be on Virat Kohli when his team Royal Challengers Bangalore begin their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 campaign against Punjab Kings on Sunday at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. The RCB vs PBKS match starts at 7:30 PM IST. (More Cricket News)
For, it will be the first time Kohli will not be leading RCB in nearly a decade, turning out only as a player, instead. Both RCB and PBKS will have new captains at the helm in Faf du Plessis and Mayank Agarwal respectively.
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Star Sports has the broadcast rights for the IPL 2022. The Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Punjab Kings encounter can be seen live on Star Sports1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 HD Hindi, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Sports 1 Telugu, Star Sports 1 Kannada, Star Sports 1 Bangla, Star Sports Select 1 and Star Sports Select 1 HD.
Viewers will also able to catch the RCB vs PBKS live streaming on Disney+ Hotstar on their android and apple mobiles and tablets. Still eying their maiden title triumphs, both RCB and PBKS will be eager to make a strong statement first up.
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Seasoned South African du Plessis, who was acquired by RCB for Rs 7 crore in the IPL mega auction last month, will captain the side even as they continue their search for its first-ever title, having failed in the previous 14 outings.
At 37, du Plessis doesn’t have many IPL seasons left in him and he would be too eager to guide the team to an elusive triumph. While they will have a new captain with fresh ideas, RCB will have to grapple with the absence of Australian duo of Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood in the team's first few matches.
Maxwell is away for his marriage while Hazlewood is in Pakistan with the Test side and will miss three matches at least, so is pacer Jason Behrendorff. A lot of focus will be on Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga and Dinesh Karthik, representing the team for the first time.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings will miss the services of Jonny Bairstow, who is in the West Indies with the England Test side in their first game, and also Kagiso Rabada as he has just finished his ODI engagement for South Africa against Bangladesh.
In the absence of Rabada their bowling attack looks quite thin and they would hope that back-up players deliver the goods against a strong RCB batting unit. There will also be a lot of focus on the explosive Shahrukh Khan who was bought back in the auction for a whopping Rs 9 crore for his excellent season at the domestic cricket across formats.
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Head-To-Head
In all, Royal Challengers Bangalore have met Punjab Kings 28 times in the history of the IPL with the latter winning 15 of them. The last time both these teams met was during the UAE leg of IPL 2021 with RCB emerging victorious by six runs in Sharjah.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis (C), Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Josh Hazlewood, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Luvnith Sisodia, Siddharth Kaul.
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Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (C), Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Porel, Liam Livingstone, Odean Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Prerak Mankad, Vaibhav Arora, Writtick Chatterjee, Baltej Dhanda, Ansh Patel, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Benny Howell.
