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Cricket might be the least of the concerns when Mumbai Indians (MI) take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their first IPL 2024 match at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The first thing to watch out for, even for RR fans, would be if and how the home crowd gets behind their new captain Hardik Pandya.
And Pandya would know that perhaps, RR are not the best side to face in your high-pressure homecoming. The inaugural champions have four wins here in nine matches (a better ratio than most) and most of their players (a lot have either played for Mumbai or MI) have a history of good performances here.
And although it's a high-scoring ground, when the intensity is so high and the backdrop so deep, bowlers tend to come into the picture quite well. And here's our prediction of which three of them could thrive the best:
#3 Sandeep Sharma
Having grown into a death-overs specialist from a swing bowler, Sandeep Sharma has been one of RR's best players in IPL 2024. He has just one wicket from two games so far but his economy rate has been extraordinary - 8.29 - considering that he bowls all of his overs in the second half.
Monday will present great conditions for him to be among the wickets. MI's lower-order is excellent on paper but all of them often struggle against bowlers with good variations. And given the high-scoring nature of the contest, they won't have the option to not take the extra and sometimes unwarranted risks against him.
Sandeep also has an underrated record against MI, picking 19 wickets against them (six of them at the Wankhede) at an average of 21.95.
#2 Yuzvendra Chahal
It's a homecoming for once India's best white-ball leg-spinner. Yuzvendra Chahal's IPL journey started in Wankhede and now he's returning here having lost his place in the national side and fallen a long way behind in the pecking order.
However, even through all this, his IPL form has been strong and he'll now aim for a big performance to show the world he means business. He has as many as 17 wickets at this venue at an average of 23.12. MI seem to bring the best out of him too - he has 25 wickets against his old franchise at 22.28.
Without Suryakumar Yadav, who's still injured, MI don't have an outlet against spinners in the middle order and Pandya tends to bat too deep to have an impact against him. Batters throughout the MI lineup have had issues against him in the past and would have to be extremely varied to not give him wickets.
#1 Jasprit Bumrah
As we like to say on this platform, you can't have one of these lists without Jasprit Bumrah. And he has only proven us right with his performances so far in IPL 2024. No matter where you make your fantasy teams, he's the first man in.
The same consistency could be RR's biggest challenge. The issue with facing Bumrah is that even if the rest of the bowling lineup isn't strong, it's hard to play him out and wait for others because he's relentless in his attack.
As he returns to his den -- 38 wickets in 35 games at 27.74 Wankhede - you can expect a handful of wickets in all phases unless RR come with a never-seen-before plan to counter him.
