Mumbai, April 11 After a slow start to their Indian Premier League campaign, Mumbai Indians will be eager to capitalize on their return to home turf when they face defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru here on Sunday.
For the first time in 13 seasons, MI started an IPL season with a win, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium nearly two weeks ago.
However, the five-time champions failed to build on this, losing both their away matches by a significant margin, and are currently in eighth place with a poor Net Run Rate (-0.715).
Despite Rohit Sharma briefly holding the Orange Cap, batting remains a concern for MI, and a collective effort will be needed against a strong opponent like RCB.
Despite limited playing time, Rohit has emerged as a frontrunner among the MI batters, with concerns particularly surrounding the form of both middle-order stalwarts, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav.
Suryakumar scored an important half-century against Delhi Capitals but could not maintain his form in the next game against Rajasthan Royals, while captain Hardik Pandya has yet to perform well with the bat in this IPL.
The MI batters struggled to find their rhythm on a batting-friendly wicket in Guwahati, where Royals' Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had dominated their bowlers in the first innings of the rain-affected game.
Even the reliable Jasprit Bumrah was unable to contain the RR batters, who added 59 runs in 3.2 overs of the powerplay. Bringing back left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner would be another option for MI, who are still waiting for the arrival of their English all-rounder, Will Jacks.
MI will know that they have a tough task ahead against a well-oiled team that is also coming off a defeat. RR's strong performance against RCB saw young Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel's brilliance lead their team to victory, while the visitors set a target of over 200 in Guwahati on Friday.
While RCB has a short turnaround time, the team will be confident knowing that they have the firepower to take advantage of the batting-friendly conditions here.
RCB captain Rajat Patidar (142 runs), Virat Kohli (129), and Devdutt Padikkal (125) form the core of RCB's batting lineup, which also includes hard-hitters like Tim David (99) and Romario Shepherd and Venkatesh Iyer.
RCB will not be overly concerned about Phil Salt's slow start to the tournament, knowing that Kohli's consistency at the top can allow others to capitalize.
The return of Josh Hazlewood to RCB's bowling attack makes them even stronger, as he has formed a successful partnership with India veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the new ball.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (wk), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Tilak Varma, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Atharva Ankolekar, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Ashwani Kumar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, AM Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Mohammad Izhar, Raghu Sharma.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c), Jordan Cox (wk), Tim David, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jacob Bethell, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer, Vihaan Malhotra, Mangesh Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Abhinandan Singh, Satvik Desai, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vicky Ostwal, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Nuwan Thushara.
Match starts at 7:30pm IST.