Royals and Titans face off in an even contest

Hetmyer has boosted Rajasthan; Gujarat has batting issues to iron out

With six points each from four games, leader Rajasthan Royals will take on Gujarat Titans in a battle of evenly matched teams at the D.Y. Patil Stadium on Thursday.

While the Royals will come into the match on the back of a good win against Lucknow Super Giants, Titans suffered their first defeat in the last encounter with Sunrisers Hyderabad.

In the past few years, the middle-order has been a problem for Royals and it is an area that the team has worked to get right this year.

The solution has been Shimron Hetmyer and the West Indian batter has been prolific with valuable knocks in all the four games at a good strike rate.

With Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson at the top of the order, the team’s batting has looked assured, while Yuzvendra Chahal has been the standout bowler in the tournament so far. He has been well supported by R. Ashwin, and pacers Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna have formed an effective pair.

An area the team will have to watch out for is the over-reliance on a few batters and it will hope Riyan Parag justifies the long rope he has been given.

Titans, on the other hand, had an off-day against Sunrisers as they failed to put on a competitive total despite a good start. The team’s batting approach was very conservative and would want skipper Hardik Pandya to bat more aggressively. The form of overseas players Matthew Wade and David Miller is a concern too and it will be interesting to see if changes are made on that front.