The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will kick off their campaign for the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) by taking on the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. MI will be keen to spark a fine turnaround this year after two consecutive seasons of failing to make it to the playoffs.
However, the visitors are severely handicapped by the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and the lack of quality spin-bowling options in their roster. They recruited Australian all-rounder Cameron Green for a whopping sum of Rs 17.5 crore in the auction held in Kochi in December.
Mumbai will need their star opening duo of captain Rohit Sharma and wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan to get in the groove right from the offset of the tournament. They will also be hoping on Suryakumar Yadav to regain some of his touch after a drastic run in the One Day International (ODI) series in Australia in which the batsman was dismissed for a golden duck in all three games.
Mumbai will, however, be bolstered by the presence of English express pacer Jofra Archer and he will most likely be supported by left-hand pacer Jason Behrendorff from Down Under.
On the other hand, RCB’s fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is likely to miss out of nearly half the tournament due to an Achilles Heel injury. They have roped in Kiwi all-rounder Michael Bracewell as a replacement Englishman Will Jacks and it would be interesting to see if the Kiwi all-rounder delivers the same strong impact in the IPL that he has done in his international career so far.
Predicted Playing XI:
RCB: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Harshal Patel, Reece Topley.
MI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arshad Khan, Jofra Archer, Kumar Kartikeya, Jason Behrendorff.
Key Player To Watch Out
Virat Kohli (RCB)
Virat Kohli has had a disappointing run in the league in the last two years, averaging 28.92 and 22.73 in 2021 and 2022 respectively. However, he has rediscovered some touch in the last year, having scored five international centuries since September 2022. It is imperative for him to be in good form with the bat for RCB to have a successful season and the former India captain will like to set the tone for that right from the start.
Cameron Green (MI)
Green will relish playing in the batting friendly track in the Chinnaswamy as it suits his free-flowing and attacking brand of batting. He can also extract some movement off the surface with the new ball and these all-round skills will infuse some much-needed balance to a Mumbai line-up that is at least on paper in urgent need of a spark that could help them pull off victories from the jaws of defeat.
Pitch Report
The average first innings score at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in 16 T20Is is 135, which is quite surprising considering the short boundaries on offer at the ground. The match between RCB and MI will most likely be a very high-scoring encounter.
Where to Watch LIVE
The match will start at 7:30 PM IST and it will be telecast live on the Star Sports network. Online viewers can also tune into the action via the Jio Cinema app.
(Edited by : Prakhar Sachdeo)
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