Captain Kohli wants the whole team to have the same mindset against SRH in eliminator

The Sheikh Zayed Stadium takes centre stage as RCB square off against nemesis Sunrisers Hyderabad tonight. It's been a season of contrasting halves for both the teams. While SRH registered consecutive wins in the last three fixtures, RCB endured four tough losses on the trot. The battle between the two teams has always been exciting and nerve-wracking. 

Ahead of the all-important game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, RCB skipper, Virat Kohli, advised the teammates to be on the same page with a uniform purpose. "I want all of us to be in the same mindset, I promise you all that we will have more fun in this next week than we had in the last two-and-a-half weeks. It would be unbelievable if we can get into the right mindset," Kohli said.

Devdutt Padikkal has shown admirable versatility, adapting to different and gruelling conditions. The youngster is seen by many as the next big thing for the country. In 14 innings so far, the southpaw has 472 runs to his name, including five half-centuries. Josh Phillipe, who has thus far shown flashes of his brilliance with the bat, will look to convert the starts into substantial scores.  

With scores of 18*,50, 9, 7 and 29, Virat Kohli will know he is due for a big knock. The stage is perfectly set today. Elsewhere on the batting front, AB de Villiers looked fluent against Delhi Capitals in the last fixture. The onus will be on him to provide the impetus to the team total. It, however, would be tough ask for the SRH bowlers to restrict RCB's fierce batting line-up. 

On the bowling front, Yuzvendra Chahal has been a standout performer. In 14 matches, the leggie has accounted for 20 wickets at an average of 19.05. Shahbaz Ahmed showed glimpses of his bowling credentials in the previous fixture. The left-arm orthodox bowler returned with figures of 4-0-26-2. Team management will want him to emulate a similar performance tonight. 

Navdeep Saini, who missed out due to an injury, is likely to make his return to the playing XI. Chris Morris, on the other hand, has shown immense control over his variations and has led the bowling attack considerably well. His role will be crucial to nullify the threat of David Warner early on in the innings.

All in all, Abu Dhabi is all set to witness a cracker of a contest with all the heavyweights in the fray. 

Match Details 

Date: Friday, 6 November

Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Time: 7:30 PM (IST) 

Form Guide 

Sunrisers Hyderabad - LLWWW

Royal Challengers Bangalore - WLLLL

Squads

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Aaron Finch, Josh Philippe, Chris Morris, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Dale Steyn, Pawan Negi, Isuru Udana, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Pavan Deshpande, Adam Zampa

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Priyam Garg, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Basil Thampi, Abhishek Sharma, Billy Stanlake, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, K Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Mitchell Marsh, Bavanaka Sandeep, Fabian Allen, Abdul Samad, Sanjay Yadav, Rashid Khan.