Today the eyes will be on Steve Smith when Rajasthan Royals open up campaign against Kings XI Punjab in Jaipur, at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, in the 12th edition of Indian Premier League.
It is being said, across media and social media as well, the Australian batsman is one of the best ranked in Rajasthan Royals, the team that is led by Ajinkya Rahane and is one of the best too this season.
The Royals would be capitalizing advantage of home ground on Monday while Ravichandran Ashwin-led Kings XI Punjab is to rely heavily on openers KL Rahul and Chris Gayle to make a fiery start.
Meanwhile, it is strongly believed the Kings XI Punjab of this year has pretty strong bowling line with Andrew Tye, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammed Shami.
Ahead of the match Ashwin said, “It’s a Royal start to the campaign for us! We start off our season in Jaipur against Rajasthan Royals and I always felt that if you can kick off with a win in an away game, it would add some teeth to the campaign. But I expect the competition to be intense.”
KXIP Squad:
KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Andrew Tye, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karun Nair, David Miller and Ravichandran Ashwin, Moises Henriques, Nicholas Pooran, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sam Curran, Mohammad Shami, Sarfaraz Khan, Hardus Viljoen, Arshdeep Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Prabhsimran Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, and Murugan Ashwin
RR squad:
Ajinkya Rahane, Krishnappa Gowtham, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Aryaman Birla, S. Midhun, Prashant Chopra, Stuart Binny, Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ish Sodhi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mahipal Lomror, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas, Shashank Singh, Liam Livinstone, Shubham Rajane, Manan Vohra, Ashton Turner, Riyan Parag
