Mumbai: Mumbai Indians (MI) need twin strikes of Rohit Sharma coming back to form and a spot-on captaincy against MS Dhoni's shrewd plotting as they take on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in what could be called the battle of champions in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Saturday.
After a week-long rest that followed with the lopsided victory of the Royal Challengers Bangalore over them, MI will look to get back on the winning side in front of cricket-crazy fans of Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium. The win is a much-need one after Virat Kohli's lone innings demolished and demoralised Mumbai as they step onto the ground to put behind the defeat and begin afresh.
They will surely be benefited from the lack of experience of CSK's Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Tushar Deshpande, who were issued a warning by their captain Dhoni at the post-match presentation for conceding too many extras through wide and no-balls and the duo would find it doubly hard to challenge the Mumbai batters with the pitch mostly favoring the batters.
It would also be up to the spinners Moeen Ali and Mitchell Santner to make sure that the bowling looks intact in the face of some hard-hitting batters of Mumbai. Sisanda Magala, who can bowl wide yorkers at will might have a chance to don the Mumbai jersey by replacing Santner in the playing XI. Meanwhile, skipper Rohit Sharma whose runs have dried up in the last few seasons despite getting the starts, and has not been able to help the team's cause with big, blistering innings has eluded the captain from making a mark.
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Mumbai's fate would also depend on their prime bowler Jofra Archer's performance who has to take up the mantle in the absence of star bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Others such as Arshad Khan, and Cameron Green might be easy meat on a strip that largely supports batting. Short, side dimensions of the ground will aid Chennai that possesses heavy weights like Ruturaj Gaikwad or Devon Conway.
Bumrah's absence owing to injury has been consistently felt in the team's composition. However, MI has done well in replacing Jhye Richardson with Australian quick Riley Meredith and by bringing Sandeep Warrier into the fold. Despite Wankhede being a batting paradise, it still offers early assistance to fast bowlers and Mumbai would look to grab that opportunity with both hands as CSK has looked susceptible and vulnerable in this department in the past two matches.
A lot will also rely on Suryakumar Yadav's big shoulders and how he performs having blown the opposition single-handedly in the past year. The silver lining for MI in the past game was up-and-coming youngster Tilak Verma who waged a lone battle against the RCB team along with Punjab's Nehal Wadhera, who too impressed everyone. Although, the team will look to put on display a collective show and a well-rounded performance to set the tone right.
In CSK's line-up, Gaikwad and Conway, and going by the form they are in, possess the potential to demolish any opposition single-handedly. Having two half-centuries to his name, Gaikwad has set the stage on fire and CSK would like him to carry on with how he has started off. Conway did miss out on a half-century in the game against Lucknow Super Giants, but his century partnership will make him the batter to reckon with in the matches to come.
Shivam Dube and Moeen Ali are essential elements in CSK's middle order and in Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni's presence, the 'Yellow Army' appears a notch ahead when compared to their Mumbai counterparts. Deepak Chahar's comeback after a prolonged injury has been rusty so far but he would look to make the best of the moisture provided by Mumbai's pitch early into the match.
If we are to go purely by the numbers, the MI team will take comfort in the fact that they have 20 victories out of the 34 times the two sides have met in 13 of the 15 editions of the Indian Premier League.
Squads:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Riley Meredith Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal.
Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Sisanda Magala, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Ajay Mandal, Nishant Sindhu, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Simarjeet Singh, Matheesha Pathirana, Mahesh Theekshana, Bhagath Verma, Prashant Solanki, Shaikh Rasheed, Tushar Deshpande.
Match begins at 7:30 PM IST.
