Wankhede braces for IPL bow as resurgent Royals eye another win

Mumbai Indians` players celebrate after the dismissal of Gujarat Titans` Shubman Gill (Pic: AFP)

Misfiring Mumbai Indians will have to bring their 'A-game' to the show in order to stop Rajasthan Royals' juggernaut when the two teams meet during the historic IPL's 1000th game on Sunday. RR are currently at the top of the table with some incredible performances, for example, their one-sided routing of Chennai Super Kings.

Despite losing two of their last three matches, the Sanju Samson-led side is in prime form and has been delivering in all departments of the game. On the other hand, there are serious concerns for MI, especially their death bowling, which was responsible for their last two defeats in high-scoring games. The bowlers gave away a whopping 96 runs in the last 30 balls to allow Punjab Kings to run away with the match here at the Wankhede Stadium last weekend.

If that was not enough, MI conceded 70 runs off the last 24 balls against defending champions Gujarat Titans. MI will need more from their top-order but the task on Sunday night will be to put up a unified front, given that RR's batting has been consistent enough. In particular, Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav will have to fire to help MI resurrect their campaign.

Also Read: IPL reaches landmark 1000th match as Mumbai take on high-flying Royals at Wankhede

The Mumbai side is languishing at the bottom and are currently placed eighth in the points table after the first half of the tournament.

In the bowling department, it remains to be seen if Jofra Archer shows up for the contest against his former side Rajasthan. The likes of Jason Behrendorff, Riley Meredith and Arjun Tendulkar have been expensive.

On the other hand, RR will look to make the most of the frailties of MI. RR have the firepower in their batting line-up to pile up a total of around 200 at the batting-friendly surface here. They have an assured pairing of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top, and in the middle, they have the likes of Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer followed by Dhruv Jurel.

RR's biggest strength in the bowling unit is undoubtedly the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin, who have so far taken collective 23 wickets in eight matches.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Riley Meredith Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal.

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c&wk), Dhruv Jorel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, R Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, M Ashwin, K M Asif, K C Cariappa, Donovan Ferreira, Devdutt Padikkal, Obey McCoy, Joe Root, Kuldeep Sen, Akash Vashist, Kuldip Yadav, Adam Zampa, Abdul Basith.

(With PTI inputs)