Royal Challengers Bengaluru will want their batting group to rebuild its muscle to snap a two-match losing streak and put their IPL campaign back on track when they face Mumbai Indians here on Sunday.

The Royal Challengers were off to an early season flier, winning four out of their first matches and the playoffs entry appeared a mere formality. But now the situation has changed. The title holders have lost three of their last five matches to slip into a little mid-tournament crisis.

RCB, who are currently third on the table with 12 points from 10 matches, are still in a prime position to enter the knockout stage. But the Bengaluru outfit will certainly be aware that they have lost a bit of steam towards the business end of the tournament.

The RCB are tied with Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans on 12 points, and either RR or GT will go ahead of them after their Saturday’s match at Jaipur, pushing the Bengalurueans down to fourth. That points table scenario in itself is slightly worrying, but apart from that external factor, the RCB will need the batting group regaining its range.

On a tad tacky Ahmedabad pitch against the Titans, the RCB batters failed to go beyond 155 and even the 9-run DLS margin defeat against Lucknow Super Giants was not as close as the margin suggests. The RCB required 19 runs in the final over to cross the line, but could not come close to that.

Now, RCB batter are up against an even more potent, at least on paper, Mumbai attack that consists of Jasprit Bumrah, Corbin Bosch, AM Ghazanfar and Will Jacks. The pitch at Raipur, the designated home venue of RCB, is a bit of an unknown commodity and the champions will need their batters at their very best on the weekend.

Faltering Bethell, Jitesh

In that context, RCB would dearly welcome some runs from Jacob Bethell, who came in for an injured Phil Salt. But his four outings so far have produced 14, 20, 5 and 4, robbing power from RCB’s opening combination, and it has left Virat Kohli to do all the heavy lifting.

Equally discomforting is the diminished returns from wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma, as his highest score this season is 23. It has dented RCB’s late charge to a certain extent, and he needs to buck the trend at the earliest. While RCB batting has its own niggles, the MI line-up showed the glimpse of a glorious past, successfully chasing down 228 against LSG in the recent match.

Rohit Sharma marked his return from an injury layoff with a blistering 84 off 44 balls, and the victory gave them a temporary relief after a slew of defeats. Rohit and his opening companion Ryan Rickelton will have to negate the potent RCB new ball pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood.

Hardik Pandya missed the match against Lucknow with back spasms, and Suryakumar Yadav stepped in as captain. Pandya has travelled to Raipur, but his fitness will be monitored closely before taking a final call on his availability for this match.

The match will start at 7.30 pm.

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