Kochi openers begin steadily

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kochi Tuskers, IPL 2011, Bangalore

Powar in for Sreesanth, Kochi bat in Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore are going green and, as a sign of their environmental consciousness, have changed the colour of their kit. The new look did not help them at the toss though, as Mahela Jayawardene called right and opted to bat on a rough track he described as "worn out". The Kochi Tuskers Kerala captain believed batting would become tougher in the later stages of the game.

Daniel Vettori, the Bangalore captain, admitted he would have liked to bat as well, given how well the move has worked for his side in recent home games. Bangalore made one change, benching Asad Pathan for Cheteshwar Pujara.

Kochi dropped seamer Sreesanth, in favour of offspinner Ramesh Powar. As expected, questions at the toss revolved around Chris Gayle's menacing form, and Jayawardene said his side had a few plans lined up for him. Will those plans work today? Or will Gayle 'go green', smashing his big hits into the trees around the Chinnaswamy Stadium?

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 Saurabh Tiwary, 6 Cheteshwar Pujara, 7 Mohammad Kaif, 8 Abhimanyu Mithun, 9 Daniel Vettori (capt), 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 S Aravind

Kochi Tuskers Kerala: 1 Brendon McCullum, 2 Michael Klinger, 3 Parthiv Patel (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Ravindra Jadeja, 6 Brad Hodge, 7 Raiphi Gomez, 8 Vinay Kumar, 9 RP Singh, 10 Ramesh Powar, 11 Prasanth Parameswaran

Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo