Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s desire to make their homecoming a memorable occasion pivots around an experienced bowling unit maintaining its excellent form when they face Gujarat Titans in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
The bowlers played a big hand in RCB taming two traditionally tough opponents in Kolkata and Chennai but now they face a different challenge at home against the Titans.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch has always had this allegiance towards batters, evidenced by the three 260-plus totals here. The short boundaries and a quick outfield add to the misery of the bowlers, but the Royal Challengers will believe that they have two bowlers who can contain batters here — Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. While they have not set the stats chart ablaze, Hazlewood has conceded just 5.37 runs an over in this IPL, while Bhuvneshwar, who returned to the field for the CSK match, has an economy of 6.6.
GT’s Captain Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan have developed into a good opening pair, and RCB will look to break their alliance early.