Indian Premier League is all set to kick start from today and the first clash is going to be between the teams of India’s top-class batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Royal Challengers vs Mumbai Indians are going head to head starting at 7.30 pm this evening.
IPL is back after 6 months
Seeing the Covid situations, no team will play their group stage games at home, therefore it would be fascinating to see how teams will adjust themselves and change their approach respectively.
Both the giants will face each other in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. We can expect the pitch to be least suitable for the batsmen and world more help the spinners if gone by the tradition. It is reported that the pitch would be more flatter this season helping the batsman to have some advantage. However, anything above 160 will be a good score to defend on this pitch.
Both the teams have faced each other for 27 matches and Mumbai has won 17 of them, which clearly shows their quality of cricket. On the other side, Virat Kohli’s side has only a 37.04 percent success rate against MI which is the second-worst for them against any team. The worst is against Chennai Super Kings (34.62).
Coming to the pitch, the last time RCB played in Chennai, they were bowled out for a paltry 70 runs. While the wicket looks better this time, Virat Kohli’s men would look to exercise caution and try to get their campaign off to a winning start.
Mumbai Indians have not done better either, the top order has remained calm in scoring rate in Chennai. Ishan Kishan (90.32), Rohit Sharma (119.69), and Suryakumar Yadav (108.75) would like to consider playing more productively.
Overall team analysis
RCB’s bowling attack remains a puzzle for the management, as their overseas player have very limited experience of playing in sub-continent conditions. It’ll be interesting to see how the new buys like Kyle Jamieson and Dan Christian will perform this year.
The spinners, however, look good with the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington as they had a decent form last season. The Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell could also come in handy and can contribute with the ball.
Source: indiatvnews
Mumbai’s spin bowling is one area of concern. Despite the likes of Piyush Chawla, Mumbai appear to lack quality, and the eyes will be on Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar to deliver the advantages.
The 5-time champions are scheduled to play nine games (five in Chennai and four in Ahmedabad) on rather slow scoring grounds, so the performances will depend on how the spinners will play.
Source: sportskeeda
Looking at the conditions this could be the possible playing XI of both the team.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Probable XI: Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (c), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Mohammad Azharuddin/Rajat Patidar, Daniel Christian, Washington Sundar, Kyle Jamieson, Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Mumbai Indians
Probable XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Piyush Chawla/Jayant Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
