Virat Kohli‘s dreadful form will be scrutinised once more as Royal Challengers Bangalore meet table-toppers Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League encounter here on Saturday.

Kohli has only scored 128 runs in nine matches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore this season, with 48 being his highest score. After scoring back-to-back ducks, he was promoted to the starting spot in RCB’s previous match, however, he was out for 9.

Kohli’s form has been one of the causes for RCB’s inconsistency, as they presently sit in fifth place with five victories from nine matches.

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The Bengaluru-based team, on the other hand, is aiming for a quick return to form from the former India captain, with skipper Faf du Plessis backing him up after their last encounter. The Titans, on the other hand, have been the team to watch this IPL season. Whatever they touched turned to gold, and every time they were in difficulty, surprising match winners emerged.

The Titans are the obvious favourites to win Saturday’s encounter, having won seven of their last eight games and are on a five-match winning run. If they achieve it, they will very certainly secure a play-off spot.

The Titans were battling in a hard chase of 196 in their last encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but Rashid Khan, renowned more for his leg-spin exploits, and seasoned finisher Rahul Tewatia hit four sixes in the final over to take the match from their opponents.

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The Titans have demonstrated that if their top-order falters, the lower order can save the day, however, skipper Hardik Pandya is hopeful that his team’s luck does not run out later in the tournament.

Pandya has 305 runs from seven matches for the Titans, and the squad appears to be prospering under his “relaxed” style. Along with Shubman Gill, David Miller, and Wriddhiman Saha, he will be the top man to get the runs once again.

The problem for RCB is not a lack of batting depth, but rather that they have not been fired as a team several times. Aside from Kohli’s struggles, Australian Glenn Maxwell has been inconsistent, scoring 124 runs in six matches and scoring one half-century.

Only skipper Faf du Plessis, Dinesh Karthik, and Shahbaz Ahmed have performed admirably thus far, and they must once again shoulder the burden of scoring the majority of runs against the Titans balanced bowling attack.

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On the bowling front, it might be a fascinating matchup because both teams have some of the greatest performances this season.

With fast bowler Lockie Ferguson and elite leg-spinner Rashid Khan – albeit he went wicketless for 45 runs in the previous encounter – in their ranks, the Titans boast a formidable bowling assault that can demolish any opponent.

RCB also have bowling punch in death-over specialist Harshal Patel (12 wickets), similarly successful Sri Lankan Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva (13 wickets), and excellent pacers like Mohammed Siraj and Josh Hazlewood, who can stop the Titans’ hitters in their tracks.

If they accomplish that, and the maestro Kohli connects with the bat, Saturday could be anyone’s game.

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Squads:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Josh Hazlewood, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Rajat Patidar, Siddharth Kaul.

Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Gurkeerat Singh, B Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Wriddhiman Saha, Alzarri Joseph, Darshan Nalkande, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Pradeep Sangwan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Varun Aaron, Yash Dayal.

The match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bangalore starts at 3:30 pm IST.