Ben Stokes will sit out another match for the Rising Pune Supergiant when they host the desperate-for-a-win Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2017 at the MCA Stadium on Saturday.
Stokes missed the loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders with a shoulder injury, picked up during the win over the Mumbai Indians earlier this week, and the Englishman is expected to be unavailable for this match as well, and perhaps even one more after that.
That would mean finding a player who can contribute match-winning efforts with bat or ball, something that is quite difficult to do.
Stokes was the star with the ball for RPS as they stopped MI at the Wankhede, before the Englishman's dynamism was missed as KKR romped to victory over RPS on Wednesday.
Faf Du Plessis came in for Stokes in that game, and did not even get a chance to bat, as RPS got to 182/5 in 20 overs, which proved to be 20 runs short of what they required.
The problem for RPS is that they do not have a like-for-like replacement for Stokes, and it is either bring in a pure batsman like Du Plessis or Usman Khawaja or go in with a bowler like Lockie Ferguson or Adam Zampa.
If they feel their batting is secure enough, they might just go for the latter option, although Du Plessis would be unlucky to miss out again, despite having done nothing wrong.
Wrong is the word to describe RCB in IPL 2017, because everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong for them this season.
A big shake-up is required in the RCB camp to get out of the rut they find themselves in and maybe dropping some of their big-name players is the way to go. Not AB De Villiers, of course, you just never drop ABD.
But Chris Gayle might get dropped one more time in IPL 2017, after another disappointing outing with the bat for the Jamaican.
However, disappointing is a word that could be used to describe the batting of pretty much every single RCB batsman in their last two games, with the Royal Challengers Bangalore only managing a combined 183 runs in their previous two matches with the bat.
After getting knocked out for the lowest ever score of 49 by KKR, RCB, following a match that was abandoned without a ball being bowled, then went on to get bowled out again, when they were kept to 134 by the Gujarat Lions, who are not exactly the strongest bowling team in IPL 2017.
While batsmen not named Gayle, Virat Kohli or De Villiers need to step up, this really is the time for one or all three of these superstar batsmen to shine.
Considering this is a must-win for RCB, they might stick with Gayle, despite the lack of runs for the West Indian.
Travis Head was brought in for Tymal Mills in the last game, with the Englishman missing out due to a back niggle. RCB will hope Mills comes back in, with Head then probably going back to the bench, along with Aniket Choudhary, who had come in to retain some balance in the playing XI.
Stuart Binny was dropped in order to make up for Mills' loss by bringing in a fast bowler, but if Mills is fit, then Binny could come back in for Choudhary.
Mandeep Singh has been one of the most disappointing players in IPL 2017, despite repeated opportunities and giving a chance to one of Sachin Baby or Vishnu Vinod might not be a bad idea.
Confirmed playing XI:
RPS: Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi, Steve Smith (C), MS Dhoni, Manoj Tiwary, Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Lockie Ferguson, Jaydev Unadkat, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir.
RCB: Virat Kohli (C), Travis Head, AB De Villiers, Kedar Jadhav, Sachin Baby, Stuart Binny, Pawan Negi, Adam Milne, Samuel Badree, S Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal.
