Maheesh Theekshana will not play for the Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, April 24, when they play Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnnawamy Stadium.

Despite sitting fourth in the standings with five wins, RCB has suffered three home losses this season. However, RR enters this match having suffered four straight defeats. Their prospects of qualifying are in jeopardy because they have only managed to win two of the eight games that have been played thus far.

Toss Update

Standby skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and opted to field first. He forecasted the pitch to get better for batting as the game progresses. Rajat Patidar spoke on shot-selection and application while batting while discussing how the Chinnaswamy has not played out like usual this season.

Farooqi comes in for Maheesh Theekshana

Theekshana was a part of the XI in all of RR’s game so far. However, he has been a tad expensive, conceding 9.56 per over. Fazalhaq Farooqi has played only two games for RR so far, proving expensive in both. However, the team management is understood to have placed trust in the left-arm seamer to come good against RCB.

What did the captains say?

Riyan Parag (Rajasthan Royals)

We will bowl first. The wicket looks a bit sticky and should get better later on. It’s back to our ethics now, if we can give our 100 percent, the results will take care of themselves. Sanju (Samson) bhai is recovering and hopefully he will be back soon. One change for us. Theekshana is out and Farooqi is in.

Rajat Patidar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)

We would have loved to bowl first as well, the surface has been tricky and unpredictable this season and we will try to adapt as quickly as we can. We have to be good at shot-selection. We are going with the same team.

Playing XIs

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal

Impact Substitutes: Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma

Impact Substitutes: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Kunal Singh Rathore