The 10th match of the Indian Premier League 2020 will be a truly clash of titans as two of the best cricketerscum-captains of modern day cricket, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, will be face to face to showcase their supremacy.
From the leadership prospective in the IPL history, the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI) have dominated against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), having won 16 out of 25 games. Likewise, MI have won IPL title four times, while RCB haven’t won the coveted trophy yet. Rohit also led side from the front against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and scored a brilliant 54-ball 80 and powered his side to a massive 195/5.
On the other hand, Kohli’s bat is yet to fire, making only 15 runs so far. Kohli would not just eye a win against MI, but will also try to rectify the errors made by him with the bat as RCB heavily relies on him while chasing or setting up a total. Meanwhile, A.B. de Villers, the other vital cog in RCB, too will aim to get some runs under his belt. The focus will also be on young Devdutt Padikkal, who began his IPL career with a brilliant half-century but tasted failure against KXIP.
The 20-year-old player will surely aim to be consistent. The RCB team management will once again hope the young opener would provide a flying start against one of the best team in business. It won’t be an easy task for Padikkal with MI’s armory boasting of bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, James Pattinson, and Trent Boult. Padikkal opening partner is once again likely to be destructive batter Aaron Finch as the team management won’t like to tinker much with their combina- tion. Finch would try to convert starts into massive totals while de Villers is expected to come up with fireworks in the middle-order as Shivam Dube and Josh Philippe have failed to fire so far. Philippe’s batting position will be another concern for the RCB skipper and team management.
In their bowling department, RCB pos- sess lethal South African pacer Dale Steyn and Umesh Ya- dav. However, the duo has been expensive until now and the same is the condition of Navdeep Saini. Chahal, who came with breakthroughs in both games, will once again share most of the spin workload. As for MI, they were clinical in all the departments of the game against KKR and will once again aim to keep the momentum going. Their top-order, comprising Rohit, de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav, are in great form but the MI team management will be concerned about Saurabh Tiwary, who failed to do much against KKR. Hardik Pandya and Keiron Pollard are once again expected to come with fireworks down the order and the duo is expected to equally share the bowling workload. The spin attack will rely on leggie Rahul Chahar, who hasn’t played his part to perfection so far.
