After a failure with the bat, will RCB take the difficult decision to drop Chris Gayle? Probably not, as the Royal Challengers Bangalore look to bounce back from a debilitating defeat to the Kolkata Knight Riders when they host the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday in IPL 2017.
RCB were skittled over for the lowest score in IPL history when their batsmen pressed the implosion button at the Eden Gardens while chasing a small score.
Virat Kohli called the batting display "unacceptable," but will that lead to changes in the team?
That is the big question, with Gayle finding himself on the bench on a few occasions already this season, be that due to RCB needing an extra bowler or for a different all-rounder/batsman.
The bowlers did exceptionally well to restrict KKR to a below par score in their last game, and while the pitch at the Chinnaswamy might be a little different, it is unlikely that there will be any changes to the lineup for this match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
While the batting flopped spectacularly – Travis Head might feel he deserves more opportunities – dropping Gayle in a must-win game does seem to be fraught with danger.
Head is a match-winner on his day – or even Shane Watson if RCB feel the need to bolster both ranks – but Gayle is more so, particularly at the Chinnaswamy, even on a slow wicket.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad are still searching for their first away win of IPL 2017, after that was taken away by a brilliant knock by MS Dhoni on Saturday.
SRH, who beat RCB in Match 1 of IPL 2017, are currently in the top four, but they need to start picking up wins away from home if they want to stay there.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad have had to make the difficult decision of dropping Ben Cutting from the playing XI, and it looks like the Australian will sit out another game, considering the form that Kane Williamson has shown.
Williamson lends a lot more solidity to the SRH batting lineup, and that is something they need.
Yuvraj Singh missed the defeat to RPS through illness, but he should return to the playing XI to face his former team, which means Bipul Sharma returning to the bench.
Ashish Nehra has sat out the last few games, and with Mohammed Siraj and Siddarth Kaul proving to be a little too expensive, there might be a case for the veteran to return to the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling lineup for one of the two.
Apart from those two changes, however, it looks like SRH will not make too many others, with Williamson, Moises Henriques, Rashid Khan and captain David Warner expected to be the four overseas players.
Expected playing XI:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli (C), AB De Villiers, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Stuart Binny, Pawan Negi, Tymal Mills, Samuel Badree, S Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh, Deepak Hooda, Naman Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul, Ashish Nehra.
