Rajasthan Royals may need to re-adjust their Indian line-up fairly when they try to pull their IPL campaign out of the current lot against a supremely poised Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi today. Starting on a conducive batting surface, Royals have suddenly hit a slump on bigger grounds of Dubai and Abu Dhabi with their batsmen not looking half as foreboding as they did during the first two games.
Mumbai Indians, however, have been solid in their last couple of games and are currently on top of the table owing to the better net runrate compared to Delhi Capitals. After a dejecting loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the ‘Super Over’, the defending champions retaliated in style, defeating Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad by 48 and 34 runs respectively. Nevertheless, the best part of MI’s camaign so far is that they have ticked almost all the boxes with skipper Rohit Sharma in good touch and now Quinton de Kock also looking menacing. Kieron Pollard is consistent as ever, Ishan Kishan has looked solid and Hardik Pandya is also finishing games with the bat. Hardik’s brother Krunal joined the party in the last game.
MI’s replacement pacer James Pattinson (7 wickets) has been a revelation alongside the redoubtable Jasprit Bumrah and the crafty Trent Boult. Once Hardik starts bowling, all the pieces of the puzzle will nicely fit in.
However, Royals would like to arrest the slide before Ben Stokes completes his quarantine and is available from the October 11 game.
Full Squads:
MUMBAI INDIANS: Rohit Sharma (captain), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Chris Lynn, Dhawal Kulkarni, Digvijay Deshmukh, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, James Pattison, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prince Balwant Rai, Quinton De Kock, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tiwary, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult.
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Andrew Tye, Kartik Tyagi, Steven Smith (captain), Ankit Rajpoot, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Akash Singh, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Shashank Singh, Varun Aaron, Tom Curran, Robin Uthappa, Aniruddha Joshi, Jofra Archer.