Mumbai, April 6 (IANS): After their first home match ended in an embarrassing defeat to Rajasthan Royals in which they managed to score only 125, five-time Mumbai Indians go into their next match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 against Delhi Capitals with their title hopes on the line.

Mumbai Indians are 0-3 from their first three matches having lost to Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad in their opening match and followed it up with disquieting defeats to Sunrisers Hyderabad in a match in which they conceded 277/3 in 20 overs, the highest total ever scored in IPL.

The three defeats have also exposed the frailties in their squad, leaving them groping for answers for the brittleness of their batting order -- in three outings, only Tilak Varma has scored the lone half-century for them, and the innocuousness of their bowling which has conceded the highest team total-ever in IPL history. To add to their misery, they have not been great in the field too, putting down some catches.

But the bigger worry for the franchise has been the reception that the new skipper Hardik Pandya has received wherever they have played. He has been booed at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and also at home -- at their fortress Wankhede Stadium. The fans have reacted with anger to the franchise management's decision to arbitrarily and abruptly dethrone Rohit Sharma as skipper and had it over to Hardik Pandya, who had left Mumbai Indians two seasons for Gujarat Titans after winning multiple titles with the team.

It is apparent that Pandya was promised captaincy by Gujarat Titans and left Mumbai Indians and was not sure whether he would get the captaincy after Rohit. There were other claimants like Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, who have also led India just like Pandya. Pandya led Gujarat to the title in the franchise's inaugural year in 2022 and then to a runner-up finish in 2023. Why he suddenly switched back, so mysteriously, to Mumbai Indians is not very clear. And that is the reason, the fans are quite unhappy with how the change has been affected for Rohit Sharma had a highly successful stint as captain, having led Mumbai Indians to five titles.

It is not clear whether it is because of the unsavoury incidents caused by unhappy fans or the extra pressure of leading a side like Mumbai Indians, Hardik seems to have lost his Midas Touch when it comes to captaincy. While he has been booed on the ground, his tactics have been questioned by many experts, especially the way he handled seasoned pacer Jasprit Bumrah during the match against SRH. Hardik delayed pressing Bumrah into action till the 13th over of the SRH innings, thus allowing the opponents to put up a massive score.

The three matches so far have also proved that while batter Hardik Pandya is up there at the top, his bowling has not been up to the mark as well as his captaincy.

For the match against Delhi Capitals on Sunday afternoon, Mumbai Indians have got a big boost as far as their batting is concerned with Suryakumar Yadav, who has recuperated from the sports hernia operation he underwent in Munich, Germany, available for selection. The middle-order batter has been declared fit to play by the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Though Mumbai Indians may like to ease him into the team considering SKY is short on match-practice, the way their batting collapsed in the previous match may prompt them to make haste.

With two more home matches to play, before they hit the ground, Sunday's match will be very crucial for Mumbai Indians if they have to put their campaign back on the rail.

Delhi Capitals are only in a slightly better position, in the penultimate position in the points table with two points from four matches, one win and three defeats.

They started their IPL 2024 campaign with a narrow four-run defeat to Punjab Kings at Mullanpur and followed that up with a 12-run loss to Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur. A 20-run win over defending champion Chennai Super Kings was followed by an embarrassing 106-run hammering by Kolkata Knight Riders at Vizag, as KKR posted a massive 272/7, the second-highest score in IPL history.

Delhi Capitals have struggled for consistent performances -- bowling superbly against CSK and then conceding 272 in the same stadium a couple of days later.

Though David Warrier has scored 148 runs so far with a highest score of 52, the other opener has not done much though barring the match against CSK in which Prithvi Shaw scored 43, putting on 93 for the opening wicket with his Aussie partner.

In the middle order, Tristan Stubbs and Rishabh Pant have scored a half-century and are their leading scorers so far. But the rest of the batters have not contributed a lot.

On the bowling front, Ishant Sharma went off the field early in their opening match and only came back for their clash with CSK. Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar have had limited success, but the rest have failed to carry things forward. They do have a few things to mull over when it comes to their bowling as spinner Kuldeep Yadav is not 100 percent in the clear. He had missed the last two matches and his availability for Sunday's clash will be assured only by the end of the day.

With one win and one defeat in their adopted home, Visakhapatnam, Delhi Capitals will be hoping to make a strong comeback against Mumbai Indians on Sunday before they get to their actual home, the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi in the next few days.

Speaking about Sunday's game, Delhi Capitals' Director of Cricket, Sourav Ganguly said, "Mumbai are a good team, we are a good team as well. We won one game against Chennai. They have some quality players in that squad, so you expect them to play well.

"But T20 is such a format that sometimes you get into this situation, where you lose a couple of games and then find a way to get back. It's going to be a good game tomorrow. We will compete, we are a good team as well, we have some quality players," said Ganguly.

"We have some quality players in the side and whichever team performs, is going to win. It's about performance on that particular day in T20 because you really don't have much time to come back," the former India skipper added.

Ganguly will be hoping that his boys will walk the talk and put Mumbai Indians under pressure from the start to gain two points from this match and start their revival in IPL 2024.

The Wankhede Stadium pitch did surprise many with the assistance the Rajasthan Royals bowlers got as they restricted Mumbai Indians to 125 in 20 overs, Things had improved a lot in the second innings with the dew coming into play and the Royals batters had a better time in the middle. The teams will be hoping that they won't face any such surprises on Sunday.

It's an afternoon match and will start at 3.30 pm.

The Squads:

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Suryakumar Yadav, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood.

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c), David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Abishek Porel, Khaleel Ahmed, Ricky Bhui, Swastik Chikara, Yash Dhull, Praveen Dubey, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Shai Hope, Kuldeep Yadav, Kumar Kushagra, Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Mukesh Kumar, Anrich Nortje, Vicky Ostwal, Axar Patel, Rasikh Salam, Jhye Richardson, Ishant Sharma, Tristan Stubbs, Sumit Kumar.