IPL 2017 Fantasy Tips (updated): RCB vs KKR and KXIP vs GL

Transfers made – 1; Transfers remaining – 10

Sanju Samson out – Robin Uthappa in

(uncapped) Rahul Tripathi out – Aniket Choudhary in

Captain – Robin Uthappa

Royal Challengers Bangalore have not only had a disappointing season but also been involved in most of the low-scoring matches in IPL this season, so with AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli already in, I am not really looking for more capped options from the side. Pawan Negi and Yuzvendra Chahal are the two other players who have shown some sort of consistency, but Kolkata Knight Riders usually play spinners well and the shorter boundaries at Chinnaswamy should only make the job easier.

Guru’s team for RCB vs KKR

There are a lot of uncertainties over the Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI today, with no clear fitness reports yet on any of Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn or Nathan Coulter-Nile. While I don’t see anyone stopping Uthappa, Chahal and Samuel Badree could turn out to be a huge threat for Lynn. The Australian T20 stalwart has, in general, been getting better against spinners, but wrist spin is something that overseas players, no matter how much they improve, always find it difficult to deal with.

Gautam Gambhir pales in comparison to these two, but if one of them is unavailable, the Knight Riders captain becomes value again. Depending on the playing XI, I might consider bringing him in, in place of David Warner.

If Kohli and AB are dismissed early, Kuldeep Yadav could wreak havoc with the way the Royal Challengers batsmen have been playing this season, but if they aren’t, the 22-year-old chinaman could very well be negated. This is a chance that I am not willing to take at this stage of the tournament, and so I have decided against picking him.

Kings XI Punjab vs Gujarat Lions

Transfers made – 2; Transfers remaining – 8

Virat Kohli out – Suresh Raina in

Aniket Choudhary out – Axar Patel in

(uncapped) Bipul Sharma out – Ankit Soni in

Uncapped preference order – 1. Ishan Kishan 2. Basil Thampi 3. Ankit Soni 4. T Natarajan

Differential - Hashim Amla

Captain – Suresh Raina

Normally when a side plays thrice in five matches, it would make sense to stack your team up with their players, but this one could turn out to be a little tricky for a number of reasons: One, Hashim Amla is expected to leave for national duty after this match; two, you can have only 5 batsmen in your team at any point of time, and with Kings XI's performing players being mostly overseas batsmen, it creates more problems; and three, all their overseas players are contributing and therefore can cancel out each other’s potential.

On the other hand, if I see out this fixture, with Amla leaving the IPL and David Warner going out of my team, things will get a lot easier ahead of the next KXIP match, and I will still have 3 of their games to play with. So, I have decided to just bring in Axar Patel from Kings XI and leave the rest out.

Guru’s team for KXIP vs GL

I don't see Martin Guptill, Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell having it easy either, as Guptill will have to face Ravindra Jadeja and Ankit Soni outside powerplay, while Marsh is batting one position lower than what is ideal for him and Maxwell may not get enough deliveries to have an impact on the game.

Coming to Gujarat Lions, Brendon McCullum’s injury could lead to Ishan Kishan being promoted back to opening the innings. Aaron Finch and Dinesh Karthik have been exchanging roles at No.4 and No.5, which rules both of them out from contention. As a result, Suresh Raina becomes the best capped option for this match, with no bowler in the opposition having the pace to trouble him.