While Bangalore began the tournament on a winning note by defeating Mumbai Indians (MI) in the opener, Hyderabad went down to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Having put up a decent performance in its opening game, RCB will be strengthened by the return of opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal, who is match-fit after recovering from COVID-19.

Padikkal had a terrific IPL 2020 in the UAE and followed it up with loads of runs in domestic competitions. In case the southpaw doesn’t make it to the playing eleven, Bangalore is likely to stick with skipper Virat Kohli and Washington Sundar for the opening combination.

Once again, Kohli and AB de Villiers will be key members of the batting department, with Glenn Maxwell hoping to come up with another valuable effort. In the match against MI, de Villiers was at his punishing best but couldn’t stay in the middle till the end.

After failing to score big in the first game, Rajat Patidar and Washington will look to make amends. The bowling department pulled things back against Mumbai and would hope to dish out another good show. Harshal Patel, who bagged five wickets last time, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj and Daniel Christian are expected to make up the pace attack.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington will share the spin-bowling duties against Hyderabad, which did not have the best of starts to IPL 2021. After a rare poor outing against Kolkata, SRH openers David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha will be keen to come good in the powerplay.

Captain Warner has always loved playing RCB and will look to set the tone with the bat. Hyderabad has the option of combining Warner and Jonny Bairstow at the top of the order. The English batsman impressed against KKR with a fifty alongside Manish Pandey and is versatile.

Kane Williamson is unlikely to feature as head coach Trevor Bayliss stated that he is yet to be match-fit. After going for runs in the previous match, pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar will aim to get his rhythm back. He could have the company of Sandeep Sharma and Thangarasu Natarajan again. Spinners Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi could trouble the opposition on a slow Chepauk strip.