Mumbai, Apr 22 (IANS): Fit-again Jofra Archer made his comeback as Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first against Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings in Match 31 of IPL 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Saturday.
Mumbai, who are currently sixth in the points table, made just change as Archer returned to the playing XI.
"We are going to have a bowl first. Really nice to have some wins under the belt, winning is always nice and the atmosphere is good but the job is not done. Quite surprisingly nice and pleasant. Looking forward to this game. We have had some injuries but Jofra is back and that is the only change. Wankhede is a good pitch to bat on and it gets better as the game goes on, hopefully we restrict them and chase it down later," said Rohit at the toss.
On the other hand, Shikhar is still not available for Punjab and they stuck to their playing XI from their last game.
"Back to back games and not much time to think about it. No Shikhar, that's why I am here but he's recovering and should be back soon. Great opportunity for the others to put their hand and we are going with the same team. Lots of close games for us. We would have bowled as well, that is the trend but hopefully we do well. Have a good powerplay and then take it from there," said Curran.
Punjab Kings Subs: Nathan Ellis, Mohit Rathee, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Gurnoor Brar
Mumbai Indians Subs: Ramandeep Singh , Kumar Kartikeya, Shams Mulani, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera
Playing XIs:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Tilak Varma, Arjun Tendulkar, Hrithik Shokeen, Jofra Archer, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff
Subs: Ramandeep Singh , Kumar Kartikeya, Shams Mulani, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera
Punjab Kings: Atharva Taide, Prabhsimran Singh, Matthew Short, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
Subs: Nathan Ellis, Mohit Rathee, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Gurnoor Brar