IPL 2018 Preview: Fielding and AB de Villiers' fitness main concern for Royal Challengers Bangalore

Ajit Vijaykumar 19:25 30/04/2018
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  • The pair cannot stop singing the other's praises. Image - IPL/Twitter.

    Royal Challengers Bangalore’s fielding and the fitness of AB de Villiers will be on the top of Virat Kohli’s mind as his team take on an equally struggling Mumbai Indians on Tuesday.

    Both teams have two wins from seven matches and are languishing near the bottom of the IPL table. While Mumbai Indians can at least say they lost four matches in the final over after competing well, Bangalore have been below par in the most departments with the bat of Kohli and De Villiers the only saving grace.

    With time running out to make a move for the playoff spots, pressure will be on both teams in Bengaluru.

    Kohli unhappy

    After their last match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Kohli tore into his team and said Bangalore didn’t deserve to win as they not only dropped top scorer Chris Lynn but also let boundaries through.

    “If we look back, we didn’t deserve to win. I don’t think we’re trying hard enough, we need to be hard on ourselves. We don’t deserve to win if we field like that. We can’t afford to field like that and let singles go to boundaries. We were just not good enough,” Kohli had said.

    “I can’t pinpoint anything right now. We need to win six out of seven to qualify from here. We need to be in that mindset to take every match as a virtual semi-final from now.”

    Will AB be back?

    Bangalore missed the services of star batsman De Villiers in the last game as he was down with viral fever. Brendon McCullum hoped the South African will be fit for the match against Mumbai Indians.

    “He is desperate to get out there, so hopefully he will be back in the next game. He is such a key player for us, and such a good leader,” McCullum said.

    But since it’s a viral fever, it is unlikely ABD would recover in such a short time and have enough strength to take the field.

    Mumbai Indians enter the match in a better frame of mind. They defeated Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets in their last game and have more batsmen and bowlers in form than Bangalore.

    Likely line-ups

    Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Brendon McCullum, Mandeep Singh, Manan Vohra, Chris Woakes, Washington Sundar, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, M Ashwin, Tim Southee

    Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wk), Evin Lewis, Ben Cutting, JP Duminy, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan

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