Match 40 - Rajasthan vs Punjab: CrickingDuels Fantasy Guide

This CrickingDuels Fantasy guide is for the match 40 of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season which will be played between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). The two teams are locking horns in less than 48 hours again as the hosts would want to win this game now desperately. Their lacklustre batting effort let them down the other day as they had a great chance to trump Punjab in Indore. However, Punjab will now look pile on the agony of the Royals and kick them out of the tournament.

Ajinkya Rahane and his men will have to hunt in a pack and get rid of the openers early which will put the pressure on the brittle middle-order of the visitors. But this time the Kings XI will be aware of the same and would want to make amends in that aspect of their line-up. Though the game is expected to be interesting as the Stadium is a big one and it won’t be easy to hit the sixes at will. Here we bring to you the CrickingDuels Fantasy guide for the game:

Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab

Batsmen

Chris Gayle has been getting out early in the recent games but the Universe Boss is extremely hard to ignore in any Fantasy side. I would like to go with Karun Nair as he has impressed a lot with his quick-fire knocks coming at number 4 in the batting line-up. As far as the Royals are concerned, Ajinkya Rahane will be back to open the innings and he is a classy player for me to ignore him in my team. Sanju Samson is due a knock and he can play a blinder in this game which tempts to make him the captain as well.

All-Rounders

It is high time for Ben Stokes to come good now and he will need to step up to the task. My gut feeling is he will make a big contribution before leaving the country and it is better for him to start doing with this match as it is a must-win encounter for Royals. Krishnappa Gowtham has been by far the best player for the hosts as he has bowled in the powerplay as well. He is the other all-rounder in my team and is capable of giving some crucial points to me.

Wicketkeeper

Now here I am taking a big risk by not picking KL Rahul who won Punjab the game the other night. Last time around, I had picked him and it worked. So I am going with Jos Buttler now and also make him the vice-captain of the team. He has found his mojo while opening the innings and might play a good knock for his team again.

Bowlers

I am not going with the set template here of picking two bowlers from each side. Andrew Tye, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Ankit Rajpoot are my three bowlers from Punjab side as they all did well in the last match. Jofra Archer continues to stay in my team as he has impressed a lot so far. He failed to make a mark last night but good players tend to go for runs sometimes.

So here’s our final CrickingDuels Fantasy team for this game: