IPL 2019, RRvKXIP: Rajasthan Royals win the toss and chose to bowl

The Rajasthan Royals – boosted by the return of Steve Smith – have made some exciting additions to their side in the form of Ashton Turner and Oshane Thomas. RR exceeded expectations last season when they sneaked into the top four. With a much better side this season, the franchise will look to go further than they did in 2018.

Kings XI Punjab have undergone a sea change from last season. There has been a change at the helm– with Mike Hesson taking over as coach, and the franchise announced they were retaining only nine players who donned the red and silver last season. The team spent big sums of money at the player auctions to acquire the mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and the English all-rounder Sam Curran.

The Rajasthan Royals rode on Jos Buttler’s success as opener in 2018, while Kings XI Punjab rode on KL Rahul’s success in a similar role. Both players have blown hot and cold since then and will want to rediscover last season’s form as quickly as possible.

On the bowling front, all eyes will be on Jofra Archer – who has another opportunity to convince the England selectors that he deserves to be part of the World Cup squad, and on the Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakrabarthy for who KXIP paid INR 8.4 crores.

Kings XI Punjab: C Gayle, L Rahul, M Agarwal, S Khan, N Pooran, M Singh, S Curran, R Ashwin, M Shami, M Ur Rahman, A Rajpoot

Rajasthan Royals: A Rahane, J Buttler, S Smith, B Stokes, S Samson, K Gowtham, S Gopal, R Tripathi, J Archer, J Unadkat, D Kulkarni