Big picture

Delhi Capitals will hope for better tidings now that they have left home and are on the road again.

Having had to play on slow and low tracks at Feroz Shah Kotla in two games, the team, which boasts of a strong fast-bowling unit and free-scoring batsmen, has had little home advantage to bank on. They will be hoping to find solace at the high-scoring M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

After losing three games out of five - two of them in Delhi - they will look to turn things around on a batting-friendly surface against the home team, whose confidence is likely to be at an all-time low after five losses in as many matches.
Form guide (most recent matches first)

Royal Challengers: Lost to Knight Riders by five wickets, Lost by 7 wickets to Royals, lost by 118 runs to Sunrisers, lost by 6 runs to Mumbai

Capitals: Lost to Sunrisers by five wickets, Lost to Kings XI by 14 runs, beat Knight Riders in the Super Over, lost to Super Kings by six wickets

Apart from his criticism of the home pitches, Capitals' coach Ricky Ponting has also pointed out that he expects senior batsman Shikhar Dhawan to score quicker. Dhawan has made 152 runs in five games at a strike rate of 116.92 so far. But he averages 48.2 in IPL games in Bengaluru, and must fancy his chances of getting his side off to a brisk start.

As for Royal Challengers, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Even a Virat Kohli-AB de Villiers show can't pull them out of their hole at the moment, it seems. When the batting has worked, the bowling hasn't, and, well, the bowling hasn't worked at all. Many unanswered questions follow them from the last game - their utilisation of spinners, their death-bowling picks, and, of course, their constant rejigging of the line-up.

Previous meeting

When Royal Challengers met Capitals last in May 2018, de Villiers and Kohli had combined to chase down 181 in 19 overs, knocking the team from Delhi out of contention.
In the news

De Villiers had not taken the field during Knight Riders' innings on Friday and Heinrich Klaasen had filled in as substitute. It is understood that de Villiers is fit and that he had opted to rest as a result of dehydration after his 51-ball 63 in the Royal Challengers innings.
Likely XIs

Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10, Ishant Sharma, 11 Sandeep Lamichhane

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Marcus Stoinis, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Akshdeep Nath, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Mohammed Siraj/ Washington Sundar 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Strategy punt

    Among the very few positives for Royal Challengers on Friday was the Kohli-de Villiers partnership. But something for Capitals to remember is that in five games this season, spinners have dismissed de Villiers on four occasions, while Kohli has fallen to them thrice. They have also struck at just 110 and 121 respectively against legspinners.

    Washington Sundar is yet to feature for Royal Challengers this season. In 2017, he finished fifth in the list of bowlers with the best economy rates in the Powerplay overs. With the bowling unit not quite clicking yet, will Kohli turn to an extra spin option in Washington?

    Another opening for Royal Challengers, perhaps? In the 2018-19 season of the Big Bash League, Stoinis scored over 500 runs at an average of over 53.3 as an opener for Melbourne Stars. He was also dismissed only once inside the Powerplay last season.

Stats to remember

    Capitals have the third best economy and the highest average of wickets taken in the middle phase (2.8) this season

    Amit Mishra is just one away from 150 IPL wickets

    Colin Ingram is 35 runs away from scoring 6000 runs in T20s