Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson has won the toss and elected to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in match 19 of IPL 2024 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Saturday evening.
RR, ranked second in the points table, are aiming to register the fourth straight win of their IPL 2024 campaign, while RCB have only one win in four matches so far and are in eighth place. RR are wearing a dark pink jersey, to mark a women’s empowerment in rural Rajasthan initiative named ‘Pink Promise’.
After winning the toss, Samson said his playing eleven is unchanged, with fast-bowler Sandeep Sharma continuing to be unavailable. “Something to do with the opposition, it’s a fresh wicket, expecting some help for the seamers and expecting some dew as well. It’s a long season, people are taking responsibility and finishing games,” he said.
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis said the visitors’ have handed a debut cap to Saurabh Chauhan, a left-hand batter from Ahmedabad who doubles up as an occasional wicketkeeper and plays domestic cricket for Gujarat.
“We were thinking of the same (to bowl first). It looks a good wicket, think it will remain the same in both innings. For me, it’s just a case of trusting our guys. We have been inconsistent; we get an opportunity to do things better. We are trying to find the roles for the players, we are looking for that.”
“That hasn’t worked as yet. We haven’t delivered. Not many people know him (Saurabh Chauhan), he has some serious amount of skill and batting power, looks like a nice and calm guy,” he said.
Playing XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (captain & wicketkeeper), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Substitutes: Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Sen, Shubham Dubey and Abid Mushtaq.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (captain), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Saurav Chauhan, Reece Topley, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal.
Substitutes: Suyash Prabhudessai, Mahipal Lomror, Himanshu Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Swapnil Singh.
