Stuck in the obscurity of the mid-table
doldrums, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings will launch their respective bids to finish in the playoff positions as they start the second leg of their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 campaign against each
other in Dubai on Tuesday.  

And the captaincy of their young Indian skippers – Sanju Samson and KL Rahul – will be in focus in the backdrop of Virat Kohli announcing he quit the role for Team India after the upcoming T20 World Cup.

While Rohit Sharma will be expected to replace Kohli in the immediate future, Rahul and Samson can make a case for themselves to be selected for the role in the long run by leading their teams to the playoffs and beyond. 

Both teams boast an explosive top-order,
with Rajasthan’s Liam Livingstone and Evin Lewis likely to meet their match in
Chris Gayle and KL Rahul of the Punjab outfit. 28-year-old Englishman Livingstone
has been taking bowlers to the cleaners in the recently-formed tournament ‘The
Hundred’.

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His likely opening partner – 29-year-old
Trinidadian Lewis – is only the third batsman to score two centuries in T20 Internationals
and has been a consistent thorn in India’s side for years. He is probably in
the form of his life at the moment, coming off the back of a triumphant Caribbean
Premier League (CPL) season with the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.

He was the best batsman of the tournament by
a distance, smashing 38 sixes overall to break none other than Chris Gayle’s
record. He will have to compete for an overseas spot with David Miller, Glen
Phillips and the most expensive player of all time Chris Morris. However, his
form should see him start ahead of his rivals.

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Meanwhile, for skipper Rahul, who has been
a prime performer in IPL, it will not just be about the runs he scores but also
about how he leads the team with guidance from Anil Kumble, who will also want
to prove his mettle as a franchise coach.

Mohammed Shami is expected to be partnered
by either Chris Jordan or Nathan Ellis.

If Livingstone and Lewis can be explosive
in the Powerplay overs, Royals will expect skipper Sanju Samson to be more
consistent in that number three position.

What will be Royals’ advantage is Punjab’s
weak Indian bowling set-up save Shami as they have to depend on either Adil
Rashid or Ravi Bishnoi for wrist spin. Their pace line-up with left-armer
Arshdeep Singh as the domestic pick doesn’t look the strongest.

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Royals’ third and fourth foreign player in
the playing XI will be interesting choices as Morris as an all-rounder is a
certainty, while the fourth slot will go to either Miller in the middle-order
or world’s No 1 T20 spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.

However, it is the Indian players like
Rahul Tewatia, Riyan Parag, Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya, who will like
to step up their game in the next four weeks to ensure a play-off berth for
Royals, which many believe is the weakest unit in absence of Ben Stokes, Jofra
Archer and Jos Buttler.

Similarly for Punjab Kings, Rahul and
Mayank Agarwal are expected to open with Chris Gayle still an enforcer par
excellence at the age of 41 which will keep the Rajasthan bowlers on
tenterhooks.

In the middle-order, Nicholas Pooran, who
had a horrendous outing in the first phase will like to put a far better
account of himself along with M Shahrukh Khan.