Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore will play their first game of IPL 2022 on March 27 at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. Let’s have a look at the match preview, prediction and fantasy XI.

PBKS vs RCB: Match preview

Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings is all set to be led by Mayank Agarwal in IPL 2022. He is a new skipper for IPL. Though both the teams are yet to lift the IPL trophy PBKS hasn’t made it to the playoffs for a very long time. Mayank Agarwal as stated earlier will be leading the team along with some excellent batters in the squad.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

After Virat Kohli stepped down from the captaincy position, Faf du Plessis took the position. This time, the fans and the franchise members won’t be getting the services of AB de Villiers since he retired from all the formats of cricket. Still, the team has experienced players like Glenn Maxwell and former skipper Virat Kohli. Dinesh Karthik has been added to the squad and hopefully, he will complete his duties. Kohli as always will be remaining the talisman of the franchise and everybody hopes for him to have a fantastic season.

PBKS vs RCB: Match prediction

PBKS transformed its squad and have just two retained players. They have got a solid squad with Kagiso Rabada, Liam Livingstone, and Shikhar Dhawan. Shahrukh Khan is in the lower order but the bowling looks average with Rabada being the most experienced. On the other hand, RCB retained the core members of their squad. They have the best bowlers likeJosh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Mohammed Siraj in it. Their batting looks weaker with no solid batter at No.3, though there are Mahipal Lomror and Anuj Rawat. Both the teams have an equal chance to win the game.

PBKS vs RCB : Fantasy XI

Liam Livingstone is a right-handed batsman and right-arm leg-break bowler from Punjab Kings. He mustered 119 runs in his 9 matches IPL career so far and will be a good choice here.

Shikhar Dhawan from Punjab Kings has hammered 5783 runs in his 192 matches IPL career so far. Hopefully, he will continue to serve the team well.

Virat Kohli is has stacked 6283 runs in his 207 matches IPL career so far, being the highest run-scorer of IPL. His previous experience will definitely help the team a lot.

Faf du Plessis has smashed 2953 runs in his 100 matches IPL career so far. He will be leading the team and is a good pick to consider for this game.

Wanindu Hasaranga played two matches for RCB in the last season. He hasn’t made his mark yet but hopefully, he will make a count this time.

Mayank Agarwal is appointed as the skipper of Punjab Kings by the franchise. He has been one of the leading run-scorers on the side along with KL Rahul between 2018 to 2021. He has scored 400-plus in the last two seasons for Punjab.

Mahipal Lomror started as a specialist batsman and turned into an allrounder, who could bowl left-arm spin. Lomror is an aggressive batsman who plays big shots, and he is expected to get runs for his team.

Shahrukh Khan was bought by the PBKS in the IPL auction ahead of the 15th edition of the season. He made his IPL debut on 12 April 2021 against Rajasthan Royals and scored an unbeaten 6 off 4 balls.

Harshal Patel is a fast bowler, who won the Purple Cap in the 2021 edition of the league with 32 wickets under his name. He had an amazing season in IPL 2021 that forced RCB to buy once again.

Arshdeep Patel was bought by Kings XI Punjab in 2019 IPL. He made his debut in that year and ended up as the team’s second-highest wicket-taker and has been praised for his performances.

Mohammad Siraj was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad team for the 2017 IPL for 2.6 crores and in 2018 he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2018 IPL auction. On 21 October 2020, he became the first bowler in IPL to bowl back to back maiden overs in a single match.