Senior players like Virat, Du Plessis, Maxwell will have to score well if RCB wants to win against RR, feels Aakash Chopra
May 27, 2022
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 27 : Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra said on Friday that Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) senior players like Virat Kohli, Faf Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell will have to score well for their side to win against Rajasthan Royals in the Qualifier 2.
Royal Challengers Banglore are all set to take inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 of Indian Premier League 2022 on Friday at Narendra Modi Stadium. The winning team will face debutants Gujarat Titans in Sunday's final.
"Experience will be helpful in today's match. I believe but I could still be wrong because if we look at RCB's performance so far in this season, they reached this stage after winning the Eliminator without Kohli, Maxwell and Faf du Plessis scoring runs. If you still reached there, it means RCB's season has been good. So, well-done RCB! But if you want to go forward from here and win today's match, and then defeat Gujarat in the final, then it is not going to be possible without Faf, Kohli and Maxwell scoring runs," said Chopra on the 'Game Plan' show at Star Sports.
"They have lot of experience. Trent Boult will be up against Faf du Plessis and he has struggled against left-armers. So, it will be a key battle to watch how he faces Boult. Virat Kohli has no such issue, he only needs to play Prasidh Krishna little cautiously. The rest he will handle pretty well. He hasn't been dismissed by Trent Boult till now. But Faf has to score runs. It will not work every time that he gets a golden duck and expect someone to rescue the team from danger and reach 200. Rajat Patidar would not be able to do it every time like he did in the Eliminator. Someone else will have to take the responsibility," he added.
Chopra believes that Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal needs to bring out his best against RCB in the IPL 2022 Qualifier 2, "They are not very over-dependent off-course. He is the highest wicket-taker not only for his team, but has got the most wickets in the league. They have got other bowlers too, so it is a good bowling unit," he said.
"In the opposition's batting unit, looking at your main batters - Virat Kohli or Faf du Plessis - if they do not score runs, then Rajat Patidar will score runs once in a while else it will become difficult for him. The same is happening with Jos Buttler, if you look at his current batting. Yuzi Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin have played only once or twice where both have failed to take any wickets and RR lost both the matches. So, it is no doubt that they are important players and bowl important overs. But the good thing about today is that the field is very big and if there is no dew on the field, you will see these bowlers bowling smartly. You will see Chahal bowling his best against his former team. In the previous match, he bowled well, but this time he needs to do even better since he needs to make his former team regret for not keeping him," he added.
Predicting the winner of the match, he said, "Royals will win it. Let us go with Royal Challengers Bangalore, though the Rajasthani Rajwadas won't let me enter Jaipur. They are very close to my heart but this time I would go for RCB."
