Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians will square off against Suresh Raina’s Gujarat Lions in a high voltage encounter tonight at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. A rejuvenated Mumbai Indians side will have their task cut out against an opponent who has won both their matches to stay at the top of the league table.
However, after a resounding win against the formidable Kolkata Knight Riders side, the Mumbai Indians will look to keep their winning momentum going at their home tonight.
The Gujarat Lions, so far, have looked the best side in the tournament. Their openers Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum are in great form and their bowlers are doing exceptionally well too.
The likes of Bravo, Jadeja, Faulkner and Tambe have formed a formidable bowling line-up which can intimidate any opponent on any given day. Their confidence will be sky-high after a convincing win against MS Dhoni’s Rising Pune Supergiants in their last game.
The Mumbai Indians are dearly missing their death-over specialist Malinga in the tournament as the bowling attack without him has looked a bit shaky. The likes of McClenaghan and Bumrah have tried their level best to match the standards of the Sri Lankan speedster but so far they haven’t looked that menacing.
However, McClenaghan did a commendable job in their last match against the Kolkata Knight Riders where he got the prize scalp of the big-hitting West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell to put water on KKR’s hopes of reaching 200. KKR ended up scoring 187 which Mumbai chased down comfortably with 5 balls to spare.
Mumbai has experimented with its batting line-up so far in the tournament and it seems that they will keep on doing that keeping the condition of the match in mind. On the other hand, Suresh Raina has followed a traditional approach so far and his tactics have worked well so far for the Gujarat Lions in the tournament.
It will be interesting to see the playing XIs of both the squads as the track at the Wankhede is known to be a batting paradise. We predict the playing XI for both the sides ahead of this encounter.
Mumbai Indians Squad
After the arrival of the talented Kiwi opener Martin Guptill as the replacement for the injured Lendl Simmons, the Mumbai team management will be tempted to field Guptill in the playing XI because of his recent form.
Their cause of concern is their bowling which has looked a little toothless in the absence of Lasith Malinga. Their bowlers have failed to provide them the early breakthroughs and have conceded runs as well.
Barring Mitchell McClenaghan, the bowling hasn’t yet been up to the mark and they will look to improve on this aspect for sure. Mumbai’s fielding was below par in the game against the KKR where they dropped quite a few catches.
Today, they could drop Tim Southee and bring Guptill in the playing XI to bolster their top-order. Also, they might play an extra seamer tonight which means Vinay Kumar might replace Parthiv Patel in the squad and Jos Buttler will don the keeper’s role. The left-arm spinner J Suchith may also be replaced by leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal.
Gujarat Lions squad
Star performer Jadeja will miss tonight’s encounter because of his marriage and Raina will have his task cut out to pick the replacement for the Saurashtra boy. The choice might be between playing an extra batsman or playing an extra bowler. The choice is between India’s Under-19 skipper Ishan Kishan and left arm spinner Shivil Kaushik.
It will be interesting see whether Gujarat plays a seamer keeping in mind the due factor. They might be tempted to play Pradeep Sangwan. But one thing’s for sure, they will miss the services of Ravindra Jadeja who has been terrific for them in their first two games of the tournament.
Teams (Predicted XI) :
Mumbai Indians:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Martin Guptill, Hardik Pandya, Jos Buttler (wk), Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Shreyas Gopal, Harbhajan Singh. Mitchell McClenaghan, Vinay Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah.
Gujarat Lions:
Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina (Captain), Dwayne Bravo, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Akshdeep Nath, Pradeep Sangwan, James Faulkner, Praveen Kumar, Shadab Jakati, Pravin Tambe.
