Toss Royal Challengers Bangalore chose to bat v Gujarat Lions
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Yuzvendra Chahal returned for RCB in a spin-heavy bowling attack © BCCI
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli won the toss for the first time in IPL 2016 and opted to bat. Kohli explained that the pitch looked somewhat dry and he expected his spinners to play an important role in defending the total.
Other considerations may have included the afternoon heat, with temperatures reaching 38 degrees Celsius, and the fact that Royal Challengers have defended successfully twice in the tournament so far.
Both sides boosted their spin-bowling stocks. Gujarat Lions brought in left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati for Dale Steyn, while Royal Challengers brought in legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal for Harshal Patel.
In addition, there was one more change each per side. Dwayne Smith replaced Akshdeep Nath in the Lions’ side, while Kedar Jadhav came in for KL Rahul as RCB’s wicketkeeper.
However, after the toss, it emerged that Mandeep Singh had injured himself during practice and Rahul took his place.
Gujarat Lions 1 Aaron Finch, 2 Brendon McCullum, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Dwayne Smith, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Dhawal Kulkarni, 10 Shadab Jakati, 11 Pravin Tambe
Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Sarfaraz Khan, 6 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Iqbal Abdulla, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo