The weekend bash for IPL will kick–off from the Wankhede today, where the home team Mumbai Indians has booked a meeting with out-of-sorts Rajasthan Royals.
With the buzz of possible likely return of home captain, Rohit Sharma to don in the blue outfit for his team, MI paltan will be eyeing to extend its dominance attained in the last 3 matches and hope to continue their winning ways. Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand expect an all-round performance from the team to stay alive for the Play-offs.
Caribbean players from both sides will play a crucial role for their respective team playing under the heat. The home team will expect a similar performance from Pollard and Alzarri Joseph whereas the Royals will bank heavily on Jofra Archer to outperform the opposition through both bat and ball, as the Barbados all-rounder has been impressive for the Jaipur team. Ajinkya Rahane, captain of the Royals, aware of the Mumbai bowlers more than anyone else in the team, being a Mumbaikar will expect the big-guns from his team for a collective effort to leave a positive impression on the game. English all- rounder, Ben Stokes, emerging as the top-scorer for the Royals against Chennai in their last encounter needs to be utilized in a more subtle way by the skipper. Promoting Stokes ahead of Tripathi can be useful as the Aussie-English duo of Smith-Ben holds the ability to improvise the run-rate during the death overs.
Mumbai Indians, on the other hand post the Pollard fireworks which saw MI pull off a great victory against KXIP and heroic spell by Alzarri Joseph against SRH in their previous 2 encounters will look for a more collective team effort as the competition moves ahead.
With the home side, Mumbai Indians holding a competitive edge against the Royals, winning 11 out of 21 outings, Jinx paltan will aim to bank on the statistics of having won both the encounters in the previous edition (2018).
Probable line-up for the Match:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Alzarri Joseph, Japrit Bumrah, Jason Behrendorff.
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Jos Butler, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, K Gowtham/Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal , Jofra Archer,Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat.
