Big Picture
RCB continue to be on the road - this will be their fifth successive away game - as they now face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium. This will be the first meeting between the two sides this season, with SRH already eliminated from the playoffs race. Heinrich Klaasen has been a bright spot for SRH - he is their top scorer with 326 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of over 170 - even as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mayank Markande have blown hot and cold.
If SRH happen to beat RCB, they could take a step towards lifting themselves off the bottom of the table. A loss for RCB would be a big blow for them in what is almost a must-win game for them: they can potentially fall to sixth, below Royals, whom they had thrashed to move up the table.
Form guide
Sunrisers HyderabadLLWLW (last five matches; most recent first)
Royal Challengers Bangalore WLLWL
Team news
Both Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga had missed RCB's last match due to niggles, and there has been no official update on them since.
Impact Player strategy
SRH could continue using Anmolpreet Singh and left-arm quick T Natarajan as their Impact players - and swap them depending on whether they bat or bowl first - like in their last game, against Gujarat Titans.
SRH probable XII: 1 Anmolpreet Singh, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Sanvir Singh, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mayank Markande, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi, 12 T Natarajan
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik had made way for left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed after RCB completed their innings against Royals last match. Anuj Rawat took over the gloves, and Shahbaz wasn't required to bowl. But Karthik or Mahipal Lomror might continue to be substituted with a bowler.
RCB probable XII: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Glenn Maxwell, 4 Mahipal Lomror, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Anuj Rawat, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Harshal Patel, 11 Mohammed Siraj, 12 Shahbaz Ahmed/Vijaykumar Vyshak
The big question
Who has been the better bowler in powerplays in T20 cricket?
379 votesMohammed Siraj
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Stats that matter
Pitch and conditions
It should be hot and humid in Hyderabad on Thursday evening. The average score batting first this season there has been 172, and four out of six games have been won batting first.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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