Sharjah: In the final league match of IPL 2020, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and decided to field against Mumbai Indians here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. SRH need to win today to ensure their playoff berth.
Rohit Sharma has come in for Jayant Yadav. Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult have been rested for this match. James Pattinson and Dhawal Kulkarni have replaced them. It is the first game in 2020 IPL for Kulkarni. SRH, on the other hand, got back Priyam Garg. Abhishek Sharma has been dropped due to his poor form.
Rohit, who missed Mumbai Indians' last four matches due to injury, has returned to the playing XI in place of Jayant Yadav. It is quite surprising as India coach Ravi Shastri had said that playing competitive cricket may make Rohit more injury-prone. BCCI ignored India's limited-overs vice-captain Rohit for the upcoming tour of Australia citing injury reason.
SRH and Mumbai have faced each other 15 times in the IPL history, and MI have enjoyed a slight edge over SRH by winning eight times.
Earlier in 2020 IPL, SRH and MI faced each other in Sharjah on October 4. Mumbai outfit defeated Hyderabad based franchise by 34 runs.
Rohit Sharma | MI captain: Throughout the tournament, there has been a lot of talk about the toss, and we need to take toss out of contention and play good cricket. Looks like I'm fit and fine. We are resting some key bowlers - Bumrah and Boult will rest, Pattinson and Dhawal Kulkarni will replace them. I am coming in in place of Jayant Yadav.
David Warner | SRH captain: We are having a bowl first. It played nice and slow the other day, even though it was another pitch, so even though there is some sheen on it, I think it will be a little slow early on so we'd like to capitalise on that. We have to beat the best teams to enter the play-offs. We have gotten Priyam Garg in for Abhishek Sharma.
Pitch Report: The scores have come down a lot, and that's a combination of the pitch slowing down over the course of the tournament. The batsmen's mindset has also changed, and they've chased a total that's decent rather than one that's massive. There's a bit more moisture under the surface right now, and looks a little darker, doesn't have the same exciting sheen like before. It'll have the characteristics of a slow pitch for batsmen batting first, with extra moisture but with the sun it might dry out, and it might get better for strokeplay. Win the toss and field first.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, James Pattinson, Dhawal Kulkarni
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): David Warner(c), Wriddhiman Saha(w), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan
