A hitting lineup peppered with great hitters makes the Mumbai Indians a formidable team, but the absence of quality spinners and veteran Lasith Malinga could affect their chances of defending the title at this IPL. The team will play most of its matches on the slow slopes of Abu Dhabi (8) and adapting to that challenge would be the key to its luck.
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Hitting would be IM’s strong suit with captain Rohit Sharma and South African Quinton de Kock making a solid starting pair. Additionally, Australian Chris Lynn also gives them an option for the position if necessary. The team will face Chennai Super Kings in the lungs opening on September 19.
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Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, returning from injury injury, and Krunal Pandya form a formidable interim. Since they are all great hitters, Mumbai will have a clear advantage over the others. Your problems might lie in finding the right combination of bowling pins, especially in the spin department.
On the pace front, without Malinga, who retired for personal reasons, Jasprit Bumrah will be under pressure, returning after a long injury break. He was MI’s top wielder last season with 19 scalps.
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Among foreign runners, Mitchell McClenaghan and Trent Boult give them the option of the left arm, while Nathan Coulter Nile would be their bowling all-rounder. Australian James Pattinson joins the options, making the selection a difficult decision. It’s the lack of quality spinners that is likely to hurt one of the strongest title contenders.
They have Krunal, who is a more restrictive option, and the troublemaker Rahul Chahar, one of the findings of the last edition. Jayant Yadav didn’t have a great streak last domestic season, so it remains to be seen how many games he has this season.
All of this could ensure that Caribbean star Pollard starts throwing his full quota of overs, which he hasn’t done regularly in recent seasons. He collected four wickets for Trinbago Knight Riders in the finale, changing the tone of the game. In his 10-year stint with IM so far, the 33-year-old has scored 2,755 runs with a strike rate of 146.77. Pollard has also crushed 176 sixes in IPL, which is the highest of any IM player.
Last year, he was even captain of the franchise when Rohit was ruled out due to injury. The towering player broke the magnificent 83 (31) as IM posted his most successful chase at home.
Coach Mahela Jayawardene, in a recent interview, put her faith in Rohit’s instinctive leadership. He said the easygoing hitter also likes to accumulate as much information as possible about the opposition.
“As long as you are prepared and make those calls instinctively and proactive, that’s all you can ask of him and Ro (Rohit) is brilliant at that,” the great from Sri Lanka had said.
Equipment: Rohit Sharma, 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 McCinter Khan, Nath Coulter Khan , Prince Balwant Rai, Quinton De Kock, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tiwary, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult.
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