KL Rahul will be the key threat to the Rajasthan Royals when they face Kings XI Punjab in Game 9 of the 2020 Indian Premier League on Sunday. Rahul took off the first century of this IPL season, breaking some great records along the way, leading many to believe that he could be the world’s number one T20 hitter right now.
Even Rohit Sharma, his Mumbai Indians counterpart, who is likely to meet Rahul at least twice this season, couldn’t help but marvel at his teammate’s clean shots in India. Needless to say, Rahul has hit a purple patch since returning from ban early last year and is on his way to proving himself a worthy successor to Virat Kohli as captain of India going forward.
READ | RR vs KXIP: the KL Rahul threat the Rajasthan Royals need to worry about
The KXIP brigade will address the party without lack of confidence. If Rahul’s explosive punch led the batting, the bowlers did a good job pitching the Royal Challengers for 109. Sheldon Cottrell, the West Indies’ top wicket bearer at last year’s World Cup has been hitting them. early breakthroughs, while Mohammed Shami remains as deadly as ever. Along with the leg-turning of Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin, KXIP already seems to have found an established bowling unit. The Royals, after being closely managed by Chennai Super Kings in the opening game, are expected to be tested again.
But like Rahul, the Royals have their own trump card in Sanju Samson, for whom the season is so crucial considering that India would want to enter next year’s T20 World Cup with their best wicketkeeper hitter. He has already scored more runs than Rishabh Pant in two innings combined, but on Saturday he will face competitor Rahul, who has not done a bad job holding ground for KXIP in both games.
What: Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab, Match 9
When: Sunday, September 27, 2020
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
Team news
Rajasthan Royals: With Jos Buttler set to return to Playing XI, David Miller, who ran out the other night without facing a ball, could be the unlucky one to be left out. Tom Curran was expensive with the ball, but his overall skills cannot be ruled out.
Likely XI: 1 Jos Buttler (Wicketkeeper), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Steve Smith (Captain), 5 Robin Uthappa, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Riyan Parag, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Jofra Archer, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 11 Jaydev Undakat
Kings XI Punjab – Relentless on the bat, clinical on the ball. I don’t see any reason why KXIP would have to play a Playing XI that posted a landslide win. Even if that means Chris Gayle is out for the third game in a row, be it.
Likely XI: 1 KL Rahul (Captain / Guardian), 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Karun Nair, 6 Sarfaraz Khan, 7 James Neesham, 8 Murugan Ashwin, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Sheldon Cottrell
Statistics and trivia –
– Maxwell is two windows out of 100 windows in T20
– Unadkat has a bowling average of 49.67 against KXIP
– Since IPL 2018, Rahul has scored 235 against RR in four innings with an average of 117.50.
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