IPL 2018 Fantasy Guru: What your team should look like for MI vs KXIP

Subs used – 1; Subs remaining – 9

Jos Buttler out – Evin Lewis in

(Uncapped) Nitish Rana out – Suryakumar Yadav in

Uncapped preference order: Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Markande

Captain – KL Rahul

Captaincy preference order: KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Hardik Pandya

Differentials: Evin Lewis, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma

Multiplier used – Yes

Guru’s team ahead of MI vs KXIP: KL Rahul, C Gayle, S Yadav, E Lewis, V Kohli, AB de Villiers, J Archer, K Gowtham, K Pandya, J Bumrah, M Markande

Expect a lot of runs to be scored in this fixture, especially if Mumbai Indians bat first. Jasprit Bumrah and Mujeeb Zadran are the only two bowlers who are capable of stemming it to an extent.

KL Rahul has no threats in the opposition today, while all Chris Gayle needs to do is escape Bumrah’s initial burst. And I already have both of them in my team. Mumbai have an in-form batting unit that runs deep, and hence I don’t expect any of the Kings XI Punjab bowlers to cause much of a damage.

With Krunal Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah in and Suryakumar Yadav getting in as the uncapped pick for the day, Evin Lewis, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya are the other players that I am interested in. Hardik is the safest of all three, with him now batting in the top 5 and bowling his full quota of overs.

Whether or not Rohit is amongst the runs again depends on how early he comes to the crease. What helps his case, however, is that there are no bowlers in the opposition who are capable of getting him out, while Lewis has to get past the pace of Ankit Rajpoot, variations of Andrew Tye, spin of Ravichandran Ashwin and Mujeeb.

I am still leaning towards the latter as the pitch looks good and he bats above his captain, and if the gamble works, it could turn out to be a massive differential at this stage of the tournament.

I only have Bumrah in my team to meet the combination requirements, so if you are looking solely at this match, Hardik is a better bet as he could do what Bumrah does and also give you points with the bat.