Having eased their nerves after registering their first victories of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will look to tick the right boxes when they face off in a league encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

The RCB side might have put behind their opening game’s woes to register their first victory against Punjab Kings in their first home game of the season, but still have a lot to work on, especially with their top and middle order yet to fire as a unit.

While Virat Kohli slammed a 49-ball 77 to set the tone during their chase of 177, it was once again left for Dinesh Karthik’s pyrotechnics with the bat at No 7, to eventually drive them home by four wickets against the Punjab Kings.

As such, skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Green and Rajat Patidar are yet to hit the overdrive, and the RCB team management will expect the top and middle order to finally realise their worth in Friday’s match.

The KKR side boasts of a strong bowling unit, at least on paper, and such under-par efforts with the bat could prove costly to RCB’s chances.

The home side’s bowling unit still needs to tick a couple of boxes despite decent outings by pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal against Punjab. Pacer Alzarri Joseph has impressed in patches, but with eventual figures of 0/38 and 1/43 from the first two outings, could prompt the RCB management to opt for New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguso or England left-arm quick Reece Topley, who has impressive white-ball skills.

On the other hand, the Kolkata Knight Riders were off to a near-perfect opening in their campaign opener against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at home, but still needed to pull up their socks to retain the early momentum.

The Purple and Gold brigade face a similar challenge like RCB, after a collectively underwhelming effort from their top and middle order against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. It required a combined effort from impact substitute Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell, batting at No.6, 7 and 8, for them to post a competitive total.

Back in action after a week’s break, the KKR top and middle order, comprising skipper Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana could be under scrutiny from the likes of Siraj & Co. However, with the Chinnaswamy Stadium offering shorter boundaries, it could be the perfect opportunity for the KKR top order to rub off the dust from their bats.

In bowling, Narine returned as the pick of the KKR attack with a miserly spell (1/19), but all eyes will be on the IPL’s costliest player Mitchell Starc, returning to the Chinnaswamy, this time as an opposition player. Starc had a below-par outing in the first game, leaking 53 runs from his four overs, but would hope to redeem himself in his second outing.

Among the spinners, young leggie Suyash Sharma came good but KKR would hope their first-choice slower bowler Varun Chakravarthy to find some rhythm after leaking over 50 runs in his four overs against SRH.