IPL 2019: It's a battle between Bangalore boys and RCB at Chinnaswamy

KXIP's Bangalore-based KL Rahul at Chinnaswamy Stadium yesterday. PIC/PTI

Which of the two teams that will take the field tonight can rightly be termed the 'A' team of Bangalore, with the other being Bangalore B? Your guess is as good as mine but the fact is that three Bangalore boys figure in the Kings XI Punjab squad, with two of them KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal playing crucial roles at the top of the order while a third Karun Nair patiently awaits his turn. To boot, two others, Chris Gayle and Sarfraz Khan - the latter figured in the first few games - have previously figured in RCB's retained players list. And, at least three others in the Kings XI squad have played one time or the other for RCB.

Both teams though will have to bring their 'A' game to the Chinnaswamy Stadium. While Kings XI have five wins to RCB's three, they cannot afford to keep dropping points. For the hosts, of course, the situation remains the same, despite two successive wins. One more loss and they can kiss goodbye to their very bleak chances of making the playoffs.

As it was the other night when CSK came calling, the game could well be a tale of the two captains. There seems to be some sort of consensus among many cricket pundits, if not all, that R Ashwin is the IPL's second best captain with MS Dhoni the runaway first. While that doesn't make for pretty reading as far as RCB's captain Virat Kohli goes, don't forget he's also the Indian captain in all three formats of the game. Ashwin's new-found tag of an able leader is well earned.

Look at the side at his disposal: Gayle is a RCB discard and he was discarded for all the right reasons. Rahul is coming back from a terrible phase on and off the field, David Miller is a pale shadow of his earlier self and Sam Curran is as yet a poor man's Ben Stokes. Ashwin himself is out of the Indian team as far as white ball cricket is concerned and yet as a true captain must, he's been able to ensure that the sum is equal to more than its parts. RCB, on the other hand, are a team full of stars but they are not just firing enough, not individually nor as a team. In the two most recent games, both of which they won but ones they could well have lost, the collective effort has been better. They need more of that tonight.

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