The home-advantage concept has become a topic of much debate in this edition of the IPL. Several franchises have complained about the nature of the pitch not suiting their style of play.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru though have grappled with this phenomenon for long at the Chinnaswamy. Rajat Patidar’s men, who have had a good start to their campaign this season, had their first loss in four games, at home to Gujarat Titans last week.

They take on Delhi Capitals — who are unbeaten in the three matches they have played so far — for their second home game on Thursday. The Capitals have been looking good but a lot will depend on Faf du Plessis and KL Rahul who know this ground inside out.

Axar Patel’s captaincy has put the players at ease and also played a massive role in their blazing start to the season, reckons the team’s assistant coach, Matthew Mott.

The Capitals sit on pole position in the points table with an all-win record.

RCB too have had a good run mainly because of their handling of spin in the middle overs. They have three of the seven middle-order batters who average over 40 this season: Jitesh Sharma and Tim David besides Patidar.

They will face a stiff challenge from Axar and Kuldeep Yadav. A lot will also depend on their explosive openers Phil Salt and Virat Kohli.

RCB have the second-lowest win percentage (50) at home in the IPL. They will look to improve it to maintain their impressive run.