IPL 2023: RCB win toss, chose to bowl first against MI

BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Faf Du Plessis won the toss against Mumbai Indians (MI) and opted to field first in their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign opener at the home arena of M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Both sides will start their IPL 2023 campaign with this match. RCB named Faf, Michael Bracewell, Glenn Maxwell and Reece Topley as their four overseas players while Rohit Sharma led MI named Tim David, Cameron Green, Jofra Archer and Jason Behrendorff as their overseas players.

In all, Bracewell, Topley and Green will be making their IPL debuts.

RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis said at the toss, "We are going to bowl first. There is a bit of weather around. There has been a bit of dew in the practice games too.

Myself, Bracewell, Maxwell, and Topley. We have been so excited to get started tonight. This is one of the great stadiums to play cricket in. That is a long way again. The first goal is to make the playoffs. We have to make sure we get off to a good start, 14 games to go in the tournament, and then we can talk about that."

MI skipper Rohit Sharma also said at the toss, "With this new rule teams are backing themselves to chase. At the end of the day, you have to play good cricket to win. We know we have to bat first here. The pitch looks good, we just have to come out with positive intent. (Four overseas players for them) Tim David, Cameron Green, Jofra Archer and Jason Behrendorff.

Last season was a disappointment for us but again, we know exactly where we went wrong so we will try and correct those mistakes. We have got some new faces as well so hopefully, those guys play freely and express themselves.

(On playing his 200th T20 game as captain) Exciting, I am really honoured and grateful as well. It's been a long journey and it's something I will cherish. Look forward to playing many more games and hopefully we can achieve what we want. to achieve."

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Reece Topley, Mohammed Siraj.

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan.