New Delhi. The Mumbai Indians team, which has faced defeat in the first two matches under the leadership of Hardik Pandya, will face the in-form Rajasthan Royals on its home ground in Mumbai on Monday and would like to end the losing streak. Mumbai is known for its slow starts in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and there has been no change in this even after Pandya became the captain. The decision to make Pandya the captain in place of Rohit Sharma, who had led Mumbai Indians to five titles, went down well with the fans and the all-rounder also had to face booing from the spectators in the initial matches.
Mumbai Indians were defeated by Pandya’s former team Gujarat Titans by six runs in the first match of the season, while in a match with a record high score in Hyderabad, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated them by 32 runs. After these two defeats, the team is at the bottom 10th position in the points table. Although this is the initial phase of the 17th season of IPL, the Mumbai team would like to end the losing streak and also improve its net run rate (-0.925). Mumbai is missing its experienced player Suryakumar Yadav who is recovering from injury. In the last five matches between the two teams, Mumbai team has been successful in registering four wins but Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals have won this season. Amazing performance so far. The team has won both its matches and during this period the performance of most of its players has been good.
Rohit will be desperate to play big innings but Mumbai team will expect better decisions from Pandya on the field. Pandya has not yet used fast bowler Bumrah in a better way. Bumrah and Piyush Chawla bring experience to Mumbai’s bowling attack, which has also shown confidence in local player Shams Mulani. Mulani is a new player in IPL but he has immense experience of playing at Wankhede Stadium. Young fast bowler Kwena Mafaka proved to be very expensive against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but it is a big thing for this 17-year-old South African bowler to get a chance at this level. Rajasthan Royals have performed brilliantly so far. Samson is in excellent form in the initial phase of IPL. The extremely talented Yashasvi Jaiswal will be eager to make his first big score this season. Jaiswal is returning to his home ground, where he had played a stormy innings of 124 runs in 62 balls in the last match played between the two teams. However, his team had to face defeat in this match.
Showing confidence in Riyan Parag in the middle order is proving good for Rajasthan. For Mumbai, Tilak Verma, Tim David and Naman Dheer would like to convert their starts into big innings.
Rajasthan’s batting order is long with dangerous Jos Buttler at the top and wicketkeeper batsman Dhruv Jurel will be responsible for scoring fast runs in the last overs. While Nandre Berger has impressed along with experienced Trent Boult in bowling, the team has the option of highly experienced Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in spin bowling. The Indian fast bowling pair of Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma has also been successful in impressing so far.
Both the teams are as follows:
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (captain), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brewis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan, Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Karthikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Mafaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir. , Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Verma, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood, Suryakumar Yadav
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain), Abid Mushtaq, Avesh Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Jos Buttler, Kuldeep Sen, Krunal Singh Rathore, Nandre Berger, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ryan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman. Powell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Trent Boult, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzvendra Chahal and Tanush Kotian.
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Tags: IPL 2024, mumbai indians, Rajasthan Royals
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 31, 2024, 15:21 IST