The Indian Premier League (IPL) action shifts to a brand new venue. As the competition returns to its home and away format, Rajasthan Royals have a new adopted home at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati where they will host Punjab Kings for their first home encounter.

Both the teams have already started off on a winning note with Rajasthan beating Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match in an away encounter at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium while Punjab got the better of Kolkata Knight Riders in a home fixture in Mohali as they won by 7 runs (DLS) method.

There is little to choose between the two teams but Rajasthan were clearly the more dominant team if one compares how the two sides played in their respective first matches. Their top-order came good with each of their top-three batters scoring half-centuries and with the new ball they have one of the world’s best in Trent Boult who set the tone while defending.

Punjab’s top-order got starts but at least one of them should have gone on to continue to bat deeper into the innings. Just one in Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored a half-century. Having said that, with contributions from middle and lower order, they did manage to post 194. But in the bowling department they would expect a better show with only Arshdeep Singh impressive in the first game. Sam Curran, Nathan Ellis and Sikandar Raza were the other wicket-takers but all of them leaked runs.

Kagiso Rabada’s return will help and in a sense could bridge the seeming gap between the two teams and could make for a mouth-watering prospect as the two sides have produced some close games in the last few seasons. Rajasthan could go ahead with the same XI.

Probable Playing XIs:

Rajasthan Royals

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (captain/wicketkeeper), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Jason Holder, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Punjab Kings

Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Sikandar Raza, Sam Curran, M Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada