The Rajasthan Royals may need to readjust their Indian lineup a bit as they try to pull their IPL campaign out of the current rot against the overly confident Mumbai Indians here on Tuesday.
Beginning with a hit in Sharjah on a conducive hitting surface, the Royals have suddenly collapsed on larger grounds in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and their willow-bearers don’t look half as threatening as they did during the first two games.
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The Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have been solid in their last two games and are currently at the top of the table by virtue of a better net execution rate compared to the Delhi capitals, also with six points.
After a heartbreaking loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the ‘Super Over’, the defending champions bounced back in style, defeating Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad by 48 and 34 runs respectively.
The best part of IM’s campaign so far is that they have ticked almost all the boxes with skipper Rohit Sharma (176) in good touch and now Quinton de Kock looks sinister too.
Kieron Pollard is as consistent as ever, Ishan Kishan looked solid and Hardik Pandya is also finishing games with the bat. Hardik’s brother Krunal joined the group in the last game.
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IM pacemaker replacement James Pattinson (7 wickets) has been a revelation alongside the fearsome Jasprit Bumrah and the crafty Trent Boult. Once Hardik starts bowling, all the pieces of the puzzle will fit together perfectly.
On the contrary, Royals would like to stop the slide before Ben Stokes completes his quarantine and is available from the October 11 game.
One of the main reasons for his downfall has been Jos Buttler’s poor form (47 runs in 3 games) along with another dismal spectacle from Jaydev Unadkat (1 4-game window at 9.97 economy). Young Riyan Parag also seems completely out of depth unlike last year.
Skipper Steve Smith might consider dropping Parag, who’s not exactly one of the top of the line, and giving another much-talked-about young man, Yashasvi Jaiswal, a shot at the top of the order. Smith could be placed in the middle to give stability to the lineup.
In bowling, as mentor Shane Warne had told PTI, Unadkat is probably still unsure of his role and has not been good in either Powerplay or death, leaving Tom Curran and Jofra Archer with a lot of heavy lifting. to do.
Smith can test the experienced Varun Aaron, who has much more pace than Unadkat or the young Kartik Tyagi, who can launch at 140 km / h.
Teams (of): Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), 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.
RR: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, Andrew Tye, Kartik Tyagi, Steven Smith (c), 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.
The game starts at 7:30 PM IST.
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