Since making his remarkable 303* in the final Test against England in December, Karun Nair has not quite set the scoreboard ticking. Since the memorable knock, the 25-year-old has looked to have been cowed down by the weight of expectations.

In the recently-concluded Test series against Australia, Nair scored just 54 runs in the three games that he played in. Before that, he played three T20s for his domestic team Karnataka in an inter-state tournament, but could only manage a total of 30 runs.
His fortunes in the one game he played for his state Karnataka in the Ranji quarter-final against Tamil Nadu or the Irani Cup that followed.

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The Indian Premier League, now provides a new platform for Nair to get out his slump and produce performances expected from one of only two triple centurions.

Nair will back himself to come good in the IPL, where he will turn up for Delhi Daredevils, who play their opening game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday. Nair was Delhi second-highest run-getter last season with 357 runs.

In the 2016 edition, Nair along with Quiton de Kock had led Delhi to victory over RCB. The duo had shared a 134-run stand with Nair unbeaten on 54. Incidentally, the win was their first win in six years over the Bangalore-based outfit.

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He will be hoping for an encore for his own sake and for his team, which has been hit hard by a spate of injuries and absentees.

Delhi though will take solace from the fact that their opponents on Saturday are facing a similar headache and come into the game following a loss against defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the tournament opener.

Time: 8pm

Venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN

Results in 2016:

Played: 2

RCB won: 1

DD won: 1

Royal Challengers Bangalore

  • Yuzvendra Chahal has taken 30 wickets in 21 IPL matches at Bengaluru. He is the highest wicket-taker in IPL matches in Bengaluru.
  • Chris Gayle is 31 runs away from becoming the first player to score 10000 runs in Twenty20 cricket.
  • RCB skipper Virat Kohli (4110 runs) was edged out by Gujarat Lions’ Suresh Raina last night as IPL’s top run-getter. Raina has 4166 runs to his credit. With Kohli set to miss at least the first two weeks, it might be difficult for him to catch up with his former India teammate this season.

“The [Royal Challengers] team that played the final last year and the team that played last night, I think there were about five or six changes. So, it was always going to be difficult to hit the ground running without Virat [Kohli], myself, and KL Rahul, all leaders in their own right. But I have never doubted the skill and the talent of the team. I have no doubt in my mind that we will come back strong from this.”

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AB de Villiers, on RCB’s loss in opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Delhi Daredevils

  • Delhi have beaten RCB just once in the last six years. Incidentally, the win came in Bengaluru last year.
  • Of the 17 matches the two teams have played against each other, Delhi have won six games, four less than Bengalore with one no result.  

“In his first IPL, Rabada will be looking forward to enjoy himself by putting in some good performances. It is nice that he has got some really nice international fast bowlers around him. Pat Cummins and Rabada can work in tandem and share their knowledge with each other.”

Paddy Upton, coach Delhi Daredevils on pacer Kagiso Rabada

Squads

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Shane Watson (captain), Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Travis Head, Kedar Jadhav (wicketkeeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Stuart Binny, Tymal Mills, Aniket Choudhary, Sreenath Aravind, Abu Nechim, Tabraiz Shamsi, Praveen Dubey, Iqbal Abdulla, Akshay Karnewar, Chris Jordan, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Parvez Rasool, Harshal Patel, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, David Wiese, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers.

Delhi Daredevils: Sam Billings, Sanju Samson, Corey Anderson, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Chris Morris, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan (captain), Kagiso Rabada, Aditya Tare, Ankit Bawne, Shashank Singh, Pat Cummins, Shahbaz Nadeem, Khaleel Ahmed, M Ashwin, Chama Milind, Navdeep Saini, Pratyush Singh, Carlos Brathwaite, Angelo Mathews, Jayant Yadav, Shreyas Iyer.