Toss Gujarat Lions chose to bowl v Royal Challengers Bangalore
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AB de Villiers had to sit out because of a suspected back injury © BCCI
Royal Challengers Bangalore, sent in to bat by Suresh Raina, the Gujarat Lions captain, were without AB de Villiers and Samuel Badree in their quest to arrest a three-match losing streak. Both Badree and de Villiers were ruled out due to fitness issues. But they had the services of Chris Gayle, who is just three short of becoming the first batsman to score 10,000 T20 runs. Travis Head, the Australian batsman, also returned to give the middle order more teeth.
Both captains didn’t seem too perturbed with the outcome at the toss. While Kohli was happy to bat first – the effect of dew has been minimal in Rajkot – Raina hoped his team would live up to their reputation of being good chasers on what he thought was a belter of a surface.
Lions welcomed back Aaron Finch, who sat out of the previous game after misplacing his kit bag. That meant a game on the sidelines for England batsman Jason Roy. Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar, who conceded 60 in 6.3 overs between them in the previous game, were left out to accommodate left-arm wristspinner Shivil Kaushik and Dhawal Kulkarni.
Both teams are trying to get off the bottom of the table; Lions are a spot ahead of last-placed Royal Challengers, who have played an extra game.
Gujarat Lions: 1 Brendon McCullum, 2 Dwayne Smith, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Aaron Finch, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Ishan Kishan, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Dhawal Kulkarni, 9 Basil Thampi, 10 Andrew Tye, 11 Shivil Kaushik
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Mandeep Singh, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 Shane Watson, 6 Travis Head, 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Pawan Negi, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 S Aravind, 11 Adam Milne
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo