Gayle was not in his elements earlier in the innings as he had tough time negotiating Kings XI bowlers and not scored and a single boundary in the mandatory powerplay.
Kings XI pacer Parvinder Awana struck in his first over to dismiss RCB's Cheteshwar Pujara. Pujara dominated his partner Gayle as he scored 19 runs out of 22 in the opening stand.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist won the toss and opted to bowl against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
RCB have made four changes bringing in Muttiah Muralitharan, Zaheer Khan, KL Rahul and Arun Karthik in place of Murali Karthik, Saurabh Tiwary, Ravi Rampaul and Abhimanyu Mithun.
For Kings XI, Praveen Kumar has made the way for Manpreet Gony.
After leading the table midway through the tournament with six straight home wins, RCB faltered on the road with just two wins from eight outings.
Slipping to a tricky fourth position with 16 points, Bangalore now find themselves in a do-or-die situation needing to win the remaining two matches to make the cut for the playoffs.
RCB will look to keep things simple as they eye payback against Kings XI after David Miller's Gayle-esque pyrotechnics snatched the game from their grasp in their previous meeting.
Punjab are out of the playoffs, being seventh with 10 points. However, they will be determined to play spoilsports.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Cheteshwar Pujara, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Moises Henriques, Arun Karthik, Lokesh Rahul, Vinay Kumar, Muttiah Muralidaran, Zaheer Khan, Jaydev Unadkat
Kings XI Punjab: Mandeep Singh, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, Manan Vohra, David Miller, Azhar Mahmood, Rajagopal Sathish, Manpreet Gony, Piyush Chawla, Parvinder Awana, Sandeep Sharma
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