Mumbai, March 28 A strong Mumbai Indians team will begin their bid to end a five-year title drought in the Indian Premier League when they take on a weakened Kolkata Knight Riders in their tournament opener here on Sunday.
It has been a while since Mumbai Indians, the joint most successful team in the IPL, won a trophy, which they claimed five times between 2013-2020.
Last year, the team led by Hardik Pandya finished third after losing to the runners-up, Punjab Kings, in the Qualifier 2, but Mumbai Indians will feel they have everything in place to try and win a sixth title this year.
A new-look Rohit Sharma will be eager to get back on scoring form, while Mumbai Indians' strong all-round squad makes them a formidable team in the tournament. This includes key players like India's T20 World Cup winning squad members, including captain Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, and Jasprit Bumrah.
MI's strong overseas talent pool includes Ryan Rickelton, Sherfane Rutherford, Corbin Bosch, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, AM Ghazanfar, and even Trent Boult, who is expected to partner with Bumrah.
MI also has experienced Indian players like Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar, and Naman Dhir, who could once again play a key role as a finisher, as he did successfully last year.
Therefore, the challenge will not only be to find the right playing combination and utilize the Impact Player rule effectively, but also to secure some early wins, which will give them momentum. Mumbai Indians, known for their slow starts in the IPL, need to avoid this.
MI will be without two of their overseas players, Will Jacks and Mitchell Santner, who have not yet joined the squad.
"With the guys who are joining (late), obviously Mitch and Jacksy. Both requested a slightly extended time for personal reasons, and we were happy to accommodate that. But they will join the team soon," said MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene on the eve of the match.
The visiting Kolkata Knight Riders, led by Ajinkya Rahane and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi, will play against Mumbai, but they have some important questions to answer before the first ball is bowled.
The biggest challenge for the KKR leadership group will be to find a bowling attack that is different from what they had envisioned after the auction.
Mustafizur Rahman was released by the franchise at the BCCI's instructions, while two of KKR's India bowlers, Akash Deep and Harshit Rana, are out of the tournament due to injuries.
Blessing Muzarabani, who has earned a reputation in white-ball cricket, may be a key player from the start, but a lot will depend on Varun Chakravarthy in that bowling lineup.
KKR also has two former CSK players, Rachin Ravindra, who should strengthen their batting, and Matheesha Pathirana. Tim Seifert looks like the only choice for wicketkeeper-batter, while they also have two quality all-rounders in Cameron Green and Sunil Narine.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (wk), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Atharva Ankolekar, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, AM Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Mohammad Izhar, Raghu Sharma.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh (vc), Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya (wk), Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sarthak Ranjan, Tim Seifert (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Rachin Ravindra, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Saurabh Dubey, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Matheesha Pathirana, Navdeep Saini, Prashant Solanki, Umran Malik, Varun Chakravarthy.
Match starts at 7:30 PM IST.