Playing XI
Venue Insights (Sharjah)
Highest Team Total : 228/4 By Delhi Against Kolkata In 2020.
Lowest Team Total : 121/10 By Hyderabad Against Punjab In 2014
Highest Individual Score : 106 By Mayank Agarwal (Punjab) Against Rajasthan In 2020
Best Bowling Figures : 4/13 By Lakshmipathy Balaji (Punjab) Against Hyderabad In 2014.
Highest Partnership : 183 By KL Rahul And Mayank Agarwal (Punjab) For 1st Wicket Against Rajasthan In 2020.
Win Rate Batting First : 70% (7 Won; 3 Lost)
Top Fantasy Picks - Bowlers
Ravi picked up 4 wickets in his first 2 matches, and then went wicket-less in his next 3. However, he came back well with another 4 wickets in his recent 2 matches and thus he has been blowing hot and cold this season.
With 10 wickets this season, Chahal has picked up at least a wicket in each of his matches this season barring just one.
With 10 wickets Shami is the leading wicket taker for Punjab this season. He has a good bowling record against Finch and Kohli and has kept both of them quiet. He has dismissed Kohli 3 times in 6 innings and as for Finch, he has dismissed him only once but Finch’s SR against Shami is very low.
Top Fantasy Picks - All Rounders
In the 2 matches that Morris played this season, he has taken a total of 5 wickets. If needed, he can bat down the order and score quickfire runs as well. Stat alert : In his last 5 T20 matches he has taken 12 wickets and scored 56 runs.
Sundar has been the perfect powerplay bowler of this season. In his last 2 matches he has taken a total of 4 wickets. Also, his highest score of this season (30 runs) was indeed against Punjab; this makes Sundar an interesting pick.
If not wickets with the ball, Dube performs well down the order with the bat with his useful cameos. He has already taken 4 wickets and scored 79 runs in this tournament.
Top Fantasy Picks - Batsmen & Keeper
KL Rahul is sitting on top of the list of Orange Cap with 387 runs. Also, the century he scored (132*) this season was against Bengaluru earlier in the tournament.
Virat Kohli is slowly climbing up the ladder in the list of highest run getters this season. He is already the highest run getter for Bengaluru this season despite starting poorly early on in the season.
Gayle is most likely to feature in the match against Bengaluru. His scores in his first match of last 5 respective seasons are as follows: 79 (in 2019), 63 (in 2018), 32 (in 2017), 1 (in 2016) and 96 (in 2015). Thus, barring 2016 he has performed exceedingly well in his first match of all the other seasons, so do watch out for him.
Probable XI
Bangalore: Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Punjab: KL Rahul(c), Mayank Agarwal, Mandeep Singh, Nicholas Pooran, Simran Singh(w), Glenn Maxwell, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Chris Gayle, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Preview
Bangalore meet Punjab in match 31 of the Indian T20 League, 2020, in Sharjah. Bangalore play their third game in 6 days but are in a happy state of mind with 5 wins. Punjab come in after a 4-day break but are on a 5-match losing streak. Languishing at the bottom of the table with just a win, what can they do to revive their fortunes? Probably reflect to their previous clash against Bangalore where they won by 97 runs. However, bowling has been their perennial issue and they need to find a way to take wickets. Gayle's availability is a big boost and that could mean Maxwell missing out. But what about the bowling? No such issues with Bangalore who really seem well-balanced with the inclusion of Morris. They would be aiming to get their 6th win and get closer to making it to the playoffs.
Bangalore at Sharjah : Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1
Punjab at Sharjah : Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1
Toss : Bangalore won the toss and elected to bat first.