IPL preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Debutants Kochi Tuskers Kerala will aim to get off to a dream start as they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening match of the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Kochi, one of the two new teams in the IPL, will be led by Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene and have few known names that are capable of causing an upset on their day.

However, none of their players have been a consistent performer in the IPL and that is something they would intend to change.

Their batting department boasts of players like Brendon McCullum, Parthiv Patel, VVS Laxman and Owais Shah.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was suspended last year by the IPL, is making a comeback and will be eager to prove himself.

On the other hand, Bangalore is a perfect mix of youth and experience led by Daniel Vettori. With AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary, Bangalore have a formidable batting line-up.

Dilshan is most likely to open the innings and looking at his current form the fans can expect some fireworks.

The bowling is the only department where these two teams look even. Bangalore's bowling will be spearheaded by Zaheer Khan, while for Kochi S Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh while share the new ball.

In the spin department, if Bangalore have got the best left-arm spinner in the world in Daniel Vettori then Kochi have spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan, who is the highest wicket taker in both ODIs and Tests.

Teams: (from)
Kochi: Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jhadav, Ramesh Powar, Tanmay Srivastava, Rudra Pratap Singh, Vinay Kumar, Deepak Chougle, Parthiv Patel, Vincent Gomez, Sushant Marathe, Brad Hodge, John Hastings, Brendon McCullum, Thisara Perera, Owais Shah, Steven Smith, Steve O'Keefe, Muttiah Muralitharan and Michael Klinger.

Bangalore Daniel Vettori (Captain), AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muralidharen Gautam, Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Charl Langeveldt, Abhimanyu Mithun, Dirk Nannes, Ryan Ninan, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomersbach, Nuwan Pradeep, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rilee Rossouw, Saurabh Tiwary, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, Mayank Agarwal, Sreenath Aravind, BN Bharath, Raju Bhatkal, Abrar Kazi and Arun Karthik.