IPL 2023: Rohit’s form and death overs bowling a matter of concern for Mumbai before the match against RCB

Mumbai With the battle for a place in the playoffs getting tougher, captain Rohit Sharma’s form and death overs bowling are the most important factors for Mumbai Indians ahead of their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) here on Tuesday. There remains a great concern. Rohit has so far scored 184 runs in 10 matches at an average of 18.39. This is the second consecutive season when his bat is not running. Mumbai are currently sixth in the points table and if they want to move forward, their key batsmen will have to perform well. Rohit’s role in this IPL is to provide fast starts to the team at the top of the order. He was able to do so in a few matches but was unable to maintain consistency in his performances. His early dismissal is putting pressure on the middle order of the team.

Rohit was not able to perform well in the IPL last year as well. He then scored 268 runs in 14 matches as his team finished last. It is a good thing for Mumbai that in the absence of Rohit in the top order, they have players like Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green, Tilak Verma and Tim David who can fulfill the responsibility well. In order to take the pressure off Rohit, Mumbai sent him to bat at number three in the last match against Chennai Super Kings, but his bet also did not work. Rohit could not even open the account for the second consecutive match, while Green, who started the innings in his place, could only score six runs. Mumbai could only manage 139 runs for eight wickets in this match and had to face a big defeat.Apart from Rohit’s form, the bowling of death overs also remains a matter of concern for Mumbai. He scored more than 200 runs in four consecutive matches bowling first. Two of these matches were played on the flat pitch of the Wankhede Stadium.

RCB, on the other hand, would be hoping for good performances from Virat Kohli, Faf Duplesey and Glenn Maxwell as their team has been successful in registering wins when all three of them have been with the bat. In the last match against Delhi Capitals, Mahipal Lomror also played a useful inning of 54 runs but his team had to face defeat. RCB’s team is currently in fifth place with 10 points from five wins in 10 matches. Du Plessis has scored 511 runs this season so far but the concern for RCB is Dinesh Karthik’s consistent batting failures. RCB’s bowling has been strengthened with the inclusion of Josh Hazlewood.Mohammad Siraj has been the most successful bowler of the team so far. He has taken 15 wickets in 10 matches.

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Squad: Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan, Jason Behrendorff, Dewald Brewis, Piyush Chawla, Tim David, Raghav Goel, Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan (wk), Dwayne Jansen, Chris Jordan, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Riley Meredith, Shams Mulani, Ramandeep Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Hrithik Shokeen, Tristan Stubbs, Arjun Tendulkar, Tilak Verma, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Suryakumar Yadav. Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf Duplesey (c), Akash Deep, Finn Allen, Anuj Rawat, Avinash Singh, Manoj Bhandge, Michael Bracewell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Siddarth Kaul, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Mohd. Siraj, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Suyash Prabhudesai, Rajan Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karn Sharma, Himanshu Sharma, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vaishak, Kedar Jadhav. The match will start at 7:30 pm Indian time.