On paper one may call it a battle of Royals, but going by recent performances in IPL 2024, consistency is the factor that divides both teams – Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals, as the teams look to renew their rivalry at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.

The Rajasthan Royals are flying high with three consecutive victories in the tournament, and will look to extend their unbeaten run against an inconsistency-plagued RCB, which has managed to notch a solitary victory in their four outings so far.

The RR side has managed to tick most boxes to comfortably find themselves at the second spot in the IPL points tally, but they have similar problems to address as their Saturday’s opponents with a misfiring top order batting.

For the Rajasthan side, Yashasvi Jaiswal and his opening partner Jos Buttler have failed to fire in unison, and their failures have robbed the team of a sound start. While Jaiswal has managed mere 39 runs from three outings, Buttler endured a similar slump, managing just 35 runs.

As such, Rajasthan’s batting has largely revolved around skipper Sanju Samson (109 runs, one fifty) and the highly-improved Riyan Parag (181 runs, 2 fifties) and at some point, the duo will require solid support from others.

Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel have been their late order enforcers, but Rajasthan might also be tempted to push Ravichandran Ashwin up the order again in the hope of getting a similar result to that of Sunil Narine’s knock for Kolkata Knight Riders against the RCB.

However, Rajasthan have an edge over their opponents when it comes to their bowling department. Their pace unit is an effective one led by Trent Boult, with Avesh Khan and Nandre Burger in company. And their spin attack boasts of a world class duo of Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, equipped with all weapons in their arsenal to control the out-of-form RCB top order.

On the other hand, the RCB will be hoping that their star-studded top and middle order, comprising the likes of skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green to fire in unison. Rajat Patidar showed glimpses of his destructive side with a 21-ball 29, and barring Virat Kohli, the current Orange Cap holder with 203 runs, inclusive of two fifties, RCB has mostly banked on the brute force from lower order batters — Dinesh Karthik and Anuj Rawat — to pile on the totals.

More than their batting, the RCB management will be scratching their heads over the dismal performances of their pace bowling unit, save Yash Dayal. While their lead pacer Mohammed Siraj has leaked over 10 runs an over, Alzarri Joseph and his replacement Reece Topley have given away more than 9 per over to make things complicated.

Maxwell led the spin attack well in their previous match against the Lucknow Super Giants, but the RCB will be hoping more from experienced leg-spinner Karn Sharma if the eight-placed RCB are to resurrect their faltering campaign.