New Delhi, Apr 28 (IANS): After two successive losses, Mumbai Indians (MI) would like to turn it around when they face Rajasthan Royals (RR) in an afternoon encounter of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday.
MI were thrashed by Punjab Kings by nine wickets. Prior to that, they lost to Delhi Capitals by six wickets.
RR, on the other hand, have also been inconsistent this season. Like MI, they have won just two out of their five games. But they are coming off a six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.
RR have very limited overseas options to fall back on. A couple of their overseas players, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes, left the shores due to injury. Liam Livingstone left due to bio-bubble fatigue while Andrew Tye departed due to fear of getting locked out of Australia.
The Rajasthan franchise is now left with only four foreign players -- David Miller, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman and Jos Buttler.
Unlike RR, MI have a lot of overseas players to pick from. However, their problem has been their middle-order which struggled to get going on a spin-friendly pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
A change in venue may bring in a change in fortunes although going by past experiences, the pitch at the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds is also slow and spin-friendly. It may be a challenge but MI hard-hitters will hope it plays better than the one in Chennai.
Both teams are on four points, but MI have a better net run rate than RR. Despite two losses, they begin favourites.
Squads:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Adam Milne, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Arjun Tendulkar, Chris Lynn, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), James Neesham, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, Quinton De Kock (wicketkeeper), Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tiwary, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Yudhvir Singh.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain), Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.