Mumbai Indians look to bounce back on home turf against formidable RCB
Back in familiar territory after yet another slow start to their Indian Premier League campaign, Mumbai Indians will be keen to make the most of their return to home turf when they take on defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru here on Sunday.
For the first time in 13 seasons, MI made a winning start to an IPL season when they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets here at the Wankhede Stadium nearly two weeks ago.
But the five-time title winners failed to build on it, as they lost both their away fixtures by big margins and are now languishing in eighth place with a poor Net Run Rate (-0.715).
Even as Rohit Sharma briefly held the Orange Cap, batting remains a concern for MI and a collective show would be the need of the hour against an opponent as robust as RCB.
Despite lacking match-time, Rohit has emerged as the frontrunner among the MI batters where there are some concerns especially around the form of both middle order mainstay in Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav.
Suryakumar struck an important half-century against Delhi Capitals but could not carry on in the next game against Rajasthan Royals, whereas captain Hardik Pandya is yet to fire with the bat in this IPL.
MI batters just could not find their rhythm on a batting-friendly wicket in Guwahati, where Royals’ Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had flayed their bowlers in the first innings in the rain-curtailed game.
Even the immaculate Jasprit Bumrah was at the receiving end against the RR batters who added 59 runs in 3.2 overs of the powerplay.
Bringing back the left-arm spin of Mitchell Santner would be another option for MI, who continue to wait for the arrival of their English all-rounder Will Jacks.
MI will know they have their task cut out against a well-oiled unit who too are coming off a defeat.
RR’s juggernaut hit RCB hard when the young Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel’s brilliance took their side over the line even as the visitors set up a target in excess of 200 in Guwahati on Friday.
While RCB will have a short turnaround time, the camp would be relaxed knowing there is requisite firepower in the ranks to make the most of the batting-friendly conditions here.
RCB captain Rajat Patidar (142 runs), the indomitable Virat Kohli (129) and an in-form Devdutt Padikkal (125) form the batting fulcrum for their side who have hard-hitters in Tim David (99) and even Romario Shepherd and Venkatesh Iyer to play the role of finishers.
RCB won’t be too concerned with Phil Salt’s slow start to the tournament knowing Kohli’s consistency at the top, where he can both accelerate or anchor the innings for others to capitalise.
The return of Josh Hazlewood to their bowling attack makes RCB strong even more as he has forged an impactful partnership with India veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the new ball.
