The fourth match of IPL 5 will be a battle of two under-performing
teams. Rajasthan Royals, led by the recently retired Rahul Dravid, take
on Kings XI Punjab, led by captain-cum-coach Adam Gilchrist, at Jaipur's
Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Friday.
Rajasthan - who won the inaugural IPL in 2008 - will be without their
former mentor Shane Warne who called it quits last season. His
replacement at the helm, Dravid, has a challenge on his hands as he
attempts to make do with a bunch of young and unproven players, in a
tough competitive tournament.
With Shane Watson absent due to his Australia commitments, the
Rajasthan batting will be reliant on the Indian contingent of Dravid,
Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Menaria and Faiz Fazal. As for the overseas
players, Brad Hodge, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah will be counted on
heavily. Each team is allowed to field four overseas players, and it is
likely that Rajasthan will accommodate two of Hodge, Collingwood and
Shah. Hodge and Collingwood are wicket-taking options and may edge out
Shah. Until Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal arrives in India, former
Under-19 wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami will keep wicket.
On the bowling front, Rajasthan look much more settled. The inclusion
of Sreesanth has given the bowling department a competitive edge, and he
is expected to share the new ball with Shaun Tait. The duo will be
backed by Siddharth Trivedi, one of Rajasthan's most successful
medium-pacers, and Gujarat seamer Amit Singh. In Brad Hogg and Johan
Botha the team has two competitive spinners who can bat, but it is
highly unlikely that both will play.
At the IPL auction this year Punjab opted not to go for any big
players, thus making the team a bit weak as compared to the other
franchisees. Coached and led by Gilchrist, the team will rely on the
likes of the destructive opener Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh, David
Hussey, David Miller, Abhishek Nayar, Paras Dogra and Sunny Singh. It is
probable that Marsh and Hussey will be first-choice selections for the
No. 3 and 4 spots, with Nayar, Dogra and Singh completing the middle
order.
There is also former Pakistan allrounder Azhar Mahmood in the squad,
but to fit him in would mean dropping a foreign fast bowler of one of
Hussey and Marsh, which is unlikely to happen. In the bowling
department, Punjab will be without pacer Ryan Harris, who is away on
international duty. That leaves Praveen Kumar to lead the attack, with
seamers Nathan Rimington and Vikramjeet Malik and the spin pair of
Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar forming a capable bowling outfit.
On paper, Rajasthan look slight favourites to prevail in Friday's match, on the back of their more penetrative bowling attack.
Probable XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3
Brad Hodge, 4 Owais Shah, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ashok Menaria, 7
Shreevats Goswami (wk), 8 Johan Botha/Brad Hogg, 9 Sreesanth, 10 Shaun
Tait, 11 Siddharth Trivedi
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt/wk), 2 Paul Valthaty, 3
Shaun Marsh, 4 David Hussey, 5 Paras Dogra, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Sunny
Singh, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Ramesh Powar, 10 Nathan Rimmington, 11
Vikramjeet Malik
1 comment:
nice cricket blog news
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