The Pink City, Jaipur is all set to host the clash between Rajasthan Royals and the visitors Kings XI Punjab. Rajasthan Royals made a comeback last year after two-year suspension and now Steven Smith is making a comeback after one-year ban in a ball-tampering case. Hence, eyes will be on Steven Smith as the franchise and fans both will expect his comeback to be the disastrous as David Warner did against Kolkata Knight Riders yesterday.
Royal’s batting line up looks solid along with Steven Smith coming back to the squad. The batting department consists of Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson and Rahul Tripathi. Among the All- Rounders, they have Ashton Turner, Ben Stokes, Shreyas Gopal and K Gowtham. Also, Royals are more excited of having new players. The bowling department is quite normal, with Jofra Archer leading the bowling department along with Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni and the new joinee Oshane Thomas.
On the other side, Kings XI Punjab has lions in their den right from the top order to the bottom. For starters, they have Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Mayank Aggarwal, Sam Curran, Andrew Tye, David Miller, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ashwin and Shami. The Punjab’s den is having 13 new players among the 23-man strong squad. Though, the auctions weren’t perfect for Kings XI Punjab, but that doesn’t means that the season can’t favour them.
Probable XI:
Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, R Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy, Andrew Tye, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Jos Buttler, Steven Smith, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Shreyas Gopal, K Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, Lokesh Rahul(w), Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran, Andrew Tye, Moises Henriques, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Sam Curran, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Varun Chakravarthy, Murugan Ashwin, Simran Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Ankit Rajpoot, Hardus Viljoen, Arshdeep Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Steven Smith, Jos Buttler(w), Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ish Sodhi, Varun Aaron, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shashank Singh, Liam Livingstone, Shubham Ranjane, Ashton Turner, Riyan Parag, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Sudhesan Midhun, Aryaman Birla, Manan Vohra, Prashant Chopra