Royal Challengers Bangalore will try to dominate Mumbai Indians
Royal Challengers Bangalore will aim to continue their dominance over Mumbai Indians in their opening match of the Indian Premier League at home on Sunday. Since IPL 2020, RCB have won three out of five matches against Mumbai. RCB, yet to win the IPL, would like to start with a win at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and give the home crowd a chance to smile. It remains to be seen how RCB fare without the likes of Rajat Patidar and Josh Hazlewood as both will miss the first half due to injuries.
Australia’s Glenn Maxwell is also not available in the first match. England’s Will Jacks has been ruled out for the entire season. Patidar hit 55.55 in eight games last year. Scored 333 runs at an average of 50. He scored the fastest century by an Indian batsman in the first qualifier. On the other hand Hazlewood of Australia took 20 wickets in 20 matches. RCB will also have to wait for Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, who is in New Zealand to play for the national team.
He will be ruled out of the initial few matches. In Michael Braswell of New Zealand, however, RCB have got an attacking batsman down the order. Dinesh Karthik also specializes in scoring useful runs. Captain Faf du Plessis and former captain Virat Kohli will be responsible for scoring runs in the top order. Harshal Patel and Mohammad Siraj will take care of the bowling. Du Plessis had previously scored 369 runs in the South Africa T20 league while Kohli has been in fine form in international cricket of late. RCB’s bowling has got an edge with the arrival of Reece Topley.
Mumbai Indians finished last in the last IPL, winning four out of 14 matches. The most successful team in IPL history and five-time winners Mumbai will aim to forget that performance and move on. Fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Jhye Richardson are out due to injury. In such a situation, the team’s hopes are pinned on Jofra Archer of England, who will handle the fast bowling along with Jason Behrendorff and Akash Madhwal. Captain Rohit Sharma and experienced Suryakumar Yadav will be responsible for scoring runs. Ishaan Kishan will be expected to play the role of facilitator of the innings.
Teams: Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (Captain), Virat Kohli, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudesai, Karn Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, David Willie, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Michael Braswell. Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Devald Brewis, Tilak Verma, Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokin, Arshad Khan , Duane Jenson, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal. Match time: 7 pm. From 30
