(Cricket news) Mumbai Indians once again lost their opening IPL game, this time against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their top order and bowlers were below par and it was Tilak Verma who single handedly made a match out of it. Now Mumbai Indians will host Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium. CSK are coming into the match after a loss against Gujarat Titans and a win against Lucknow Super Giants. These two sides are the most successful in IPL history and have produced some incredible matches in the past. Fans will be hoping to see something special once again in Mumbai.

Mumbai Indians ideal playing XI:

Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav/Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Green, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan

Bench:

Dewald Brevis, Ramandeep Singh , Tristan Stubbs, Shams Mulani, Kumar Kartikeya, Arjun Tendulkar, Sandeep Warrier, Akash Madhwal, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Raghav Goyal, Riley Meredith

Even though Mumbai Indians didn’t play well in the last game, they are likely to retain the same XI. Riley Meredith has been added to the squad as a replacement for Jhye Richardson. The Indian trio of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav will have to fire if Mumbai Indians are to do well. The bowling also needs to be better and Jofra Archer will be expected to step up. Cameron Green will get better with more tournament experience as will Tim David but both need to start contributing as Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brevis are waiting on the bench for their opportunity. 

Chennai Super Kings possible playing XI:

Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ambati Rayudu/Tushar Deshpande, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Shivam Dube, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, RS Hangargekar

Bench:

Dwaine Pretorius, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Ajinkya Rahane, Nishant Sindhu, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, Akash Singh, Bhagath Varma

All eyes will be on Ben Stokes who is yet to find form in this tournament but he has started bowling which is good news for CSK. MS Dhoni seems to have settled at the number 8 batting spot where he will only face a handful of deliveries and try to make the best out of it. Only time will tell whether that plan works because the team might benefit if he promotes himself up the order and faces more balls. Tushar Deshpande recovered well at the death in the last match but he could still miss this game to accomodate Simarjeet Singh.

Also read: Should IPL performances be considered for selection in other formats?