Royal Challengers Bangalore host Sunrisers Hyderabad in the reverse fixture of season opener at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
Virat Kohli's men are struggling at the bottom of the league table with only two wins from seven games. They will be low on confidence after being bowled out a tournament low of 49 in their last match against Kolkata Knight Riders on the road on Saturday.
On the other hand, defending champions Sunrisers, who are still searching for their first away win of the season, are heading into the match on the back of a six-wicket loss to Rising Pune Supergiant in their last league game.
When the two teams met in the season opener, RCB were a weakened unit without the likes of Kohli and AB de Villiers and thus SRH had little trouble in pocketing two points. However, the last season's runners-up have struggled even after the return of the two mainstays, who themselves have not been in the best of forms.
Also, Chris Gayle's lack of appetite for big runs this season has hurt them. With the team needed to win at least six of their next seven games, the big guns need to start firing sooner than later. With Yuzvendra Chahal, Tymal Mills, Samuel Badree and Sreenath Aravind, their bowling looks settled, but needs support from their big-hitting batsmen.
On the other hand, MS Dhoni's 34-ball 61 in chase of 177 saw SRH losing their last match but David Warner's men are comfortably placed at the third spot with four wins from seven games.
With the wicket at the ground not being helpful to batsmen this season, SRH will be banking on their well-oiled bowling machine, consisting the likes of Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashish Nehra, to do the job.
Team News
RCB
Possible XI: Kohli (c), Gayle, Mandeep, De Villiers, Jadhav (wk), Binny, Negi, Badree, Mills, Aravind, Chahal
SRH
Possible XI: Warner (c), Dhawan, Williamson, Henriques, Yuvraj, Ojha (wk), Hooda, Rashid, Nehra, Kaul, Bhuvneshwar
