MUMBAI: Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat first against Gujarat Titans in Match 43 of IPL 2022 at the Brabourne Stadium here on Saturday.
Du Plessis said the heat was a major factor behind his decision to bat first as he didn't want his players getting cooked while fielding first in the scorching hot and humid conditions.
He said though his team had a couple of bad games, that does not make it a bad team. "There are some quality players who need to be continually trusted as they know things will change and better results are around the corner, " the RCB skipper said.
RCB made one change in their playing XI, bringing in Mahipal Lmoror for Suyash Prabhudessai.
Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya, who is playing his 100th IPL match, said he too would have batted first because of the conditions. He did not think the pitch will change much for the second innings.
Gujarat Titans made two changes in their team that played the last match, Pradeep Sangwan and Sai Sudarshan come in for Yash Dayal and Abhinav Manohar.
Playing XIs:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood.
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Sai Sudharsan, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammad Shami, Pradeep Sangwan.