Playing XI
Top Fantasy Picks-Batsmen and Keepers
Rahul is the orange cap holder this season with 595 runs. In his last 5 matches against Rajasthan, he has piled up 304 runs at SR of 133.
Samson scored a welcome fifty in the last match which came after a gap of 9 matches. Also, do watch out for him as his highest score of this season (85 from 42) was against Punjab earlier.
Since Gayle’s inclusion in the squad, Punjab has won every match, such is his impact as he has scored 177 runs in 5 matches. Last season in 2 matches that he played against Rajasthan, he managed to score 119 runs at SR of 173.
Top Fantasy Picks-All Rounders
Fresh from a century against Mumbai (107*), Ben Stokes is certainly proving his worth now at the business end of the tournament.
It was Punjab against which Tewatia got all the recognition when he scored 53 from 31 balls earlier in the season. Thus, there is a possibility that he might be pushed up the order.
44 runs and 2 wickets is what Maxwell has achieved in his last 3 matches, thus looking way more settled now than at the start of the tournament.
Top Fantasy Picks-Bowlers
With 17 wickets, Archer is the leading wicket-taker for Rajasthan. Stat alert: Abu Dhabi is the only venue this season where he has never been wicket-less in a match.
With 20 wickets, Shami is joint 2nd in the list of Purple Cap holders and has been amongst wickets in each of his last 7 matches. As context, he picked up a 3-fer the last time he faced Rajasthan this season.
In his first 5 matches this season Jordan only had 2 wickets and was going for plenty of runs; however in the recent 2 matches he had bowling figures of 2/25 and 3/17, thus looking more confident and settled with the ball.
Probable XI
Rajasthan : Yashasvi Jaiswal, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson(wk), Steven Smith(c), David Miller, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Tom Curran, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat
Punjab : Lokesh Rahul(wk/c), Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Sarfaraz Khan, James Neesham, Mohammed Shami, Murugan Ashwin, Sheldon Cottrell, Ravi Bishnoi
Preview
Only a handful of league matches are left in the 2020 Indian T20 League and the race to finish in the top 4 is still wide open. In a bid to stake their claims, Punjab will be taking on Rajasthan in Abu Dhabi.
The former has turned things around and is on a 5-match winning streak. Once Punjab appeared down and out but the way they have bounced back is admirable.
Their batting and bowling have been clicking as a unit and that's the main reason for their revival.
Rajasthan, on the other hand, have been very inconsistent with their performance and are hanging in by a thread. However, their thumping win against Mumbai in the last game would have given them immense confidence.
They would hope to carry that forward and register a double over Punjab this season. Their last meeting was a high-scoring thriller and we're hoping for the same again.
Toss
Rajasthan won the toss and elected to bowl first.