(Cricket news) Mumbai Indians are struggling and one more loss would mean that they will virtually be out of the playoff race but on the other hand the new franchise Lucknow Supergiants have played 5 and won three. Mumbai Indians must win eight of their remaining nine league matches to have a fair chance of making the playoffs, after losing five in a row to begin with. However, miracles do happen in sport, like when Kolkata Knight Riders won nine games in a row on their way to a second IPL title in 2014.
One of Mumbai's problems is that their senior core of Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Jasprit Bumrah have not contributed a lot but their youngsters Tilak Verma and Dewald Brevis have shone on the big stage. Suryakumar Yadav is the only batsman that is scoring big but isn't getting much support from the other players. The very fact that MI are playing with just three overseas players says that something is wrong in the MI camp, as they should look to play Tim David or Fabin Allen to give them that extra all rounding option. Except for Jasprit Bumrah the rest of the other bowlers are proving to be really expensive as Rohit Sharma and co need to figure something out really quickly. Thampi, Ashwin and Jaydev Unadkat have never dismissed de Kock in a T20. Moreover, his strike rate against them reads 173, 153 and 145, respectively.
The Lucknow Supergiants suffered a disappointing defeat against the Rajasthan Royals in their last match and will look to bounce back and go to the top of the table. There have been many other contributions with the bat from Hooda, KL Rahul and the impressive Ayush Badoni, and with the ball from Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, K Gowtham and Pandya. The LSG will look to send Marcus Stonis up the order from him, get settled and play a big innings rather than playing the finisher role in the team. Ravi Bishnoi has enjoyed reasonable success against MI batters (Surya, Rohit, Kishan and Pollard) and has managed to keep them quiet as the three spinners in Krishnappa Gowtham and Krunal Pandya will be the key in this fixture.
Interesting facts:
- Rahul has the most runs in the IPL since 2018 with 2680 runs at an average of 53.6
- Dushmantha Chameera has got Rohit Sharma out six times in T20Is
- The No. 3 spot has yielded only 21 runs as they will look to get Marcus Stoinis at no 3
- Five defeats for Mumbai Indians is also their joint-longest losing sequence in IPL. They lost each of their first five matches in 2014 edition and the first four matches in 2015
Also read: Tripathi, Markram star in SRH's third straight win
Probable XI for MI:
1 Ishan Kishan (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Dewald Brevis, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Tymal Mills/Tim David, 8 Jaydev Unadkat, 9 Mayank Markande/M Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Basil Thampi/Fabian Allen
Probable XI for LSG:
1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 K Gowtham, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Ravi Bishnoi
