Mumbai Indians will face off against RCB in Bengaluru as both sides look to start their campaign with a win. The teams have switched roles for what they have historically been known for with Mumbai banking on their star-studded batting with a fragile bowling attack led by Archer who is coming back from a long layoff while RCB continues to use the same template that they used last season but have upgraded their squad with handy backups in Bracewell and Topley who offer some versatility and help cover for players who will be missing the initial games of the season for RCB.
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Mumbai Indians
With the addition of Cam Green, this batting lineup is filled with players who can take the game away from the opposition at any time. Filled with batsmen of such high calibre, MI are always 1-2 good innings away from stealing the game from the opposition. They will have slight problems with how their Indian batsmen lineup with Rohit not able to convert his starts and Kishan not able to score big after his 200 against Bangladesh. Surya has had a horrid run playing against Australia outside his preferred format while Tilak’s batting position will be key to decide his impact on the game.
Their bowling lineup will be led by Jofra Archer who will have high hopes as he will look to take over what Bumrah has been doing for the last few years, an all-phase bowler who is brought in to take wickets. Behrendorff will be their opening bowler with the southpaw looking to get early wickets. The rest of their lineup is filled with Indians who are yet to perform in the IPL and will have lots of pressure on them. Kartikeya will offer the captain multiple types of LSA in the same over while Arshad Khan looks like a promising talent who has a lot of control over his bowling but performing at this stage where there is no room for error will be an uphill battle.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
With Kohli back to scoring runs and Faf having had success with spin in the CPL, the team has gotten stronger from last year. With a strong opening pair, RCB has all bases covered with Rajat showing us his class from last year and helping complement Maxi at number 4 who operates best when he is given full freedom to use his range against spinners. Shahbaz has performed well against pace and is a perfect backup to DK who will once again get a chance to walk in the death overs as he looks to take the pace bowling of the opposition apart.
The bowling remains the same with Topley set to start ahead of Hazlewood. In theory, this bowling lineup has the potential to be the best in the league but everything hasn’t fallen in place with some of the bowlers having a horrible run in the previous season. Siraj will look to forget about the last IPL and continue his good form for the men in blue giving RCB 2 overs up front with the ball swinging and 2 overs at the death where he looks to choke the batsmen with his yorkers and tight lines. Harshal Patel post the world cup hasn’t had a chance to prove himself and would look to reinvent and take the opportunity to boss the final 10 overs which many bowlers haven’t been able to do. Topley with his height, left arm angle and slinky action offers some variety to the trio. RCB have used Maxi very well in the powerplay and Shahbaz based on the ground dimensions with Bracewell/ Karn Sharma set to replace Hasaranga leaving a huge hole in their bowling lineup.
Probable Playing XI
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudessai, Glenn Maxwell, Micheal Bracewell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Reece Topley, Mohammed Siraj and Karn Sharma
Impact Players: Anuj Rawat and Akash Deep
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Cameron Green, Jofra Archer, Arshad Khan, Hrithik Shokeen, Kumar Karthikeyan, Jason Behnredorff
Impact Players: Shams Mulani and Ramandeep Singh
Key Matchups
Dinesh Karthik vs Jofra Archer: Runs – 38, Balls – 26, Dismissals – 1
Faf du Plessis vs Jofra Archer: Runs – 17, Balls – 11, Dismissals – 2
Virat Kohli vs Jofra Archer: Runs – 2, Balls – 9, Dismissals – 0
Glenn Maxwell vs Jofra Archer: Runs – 12, Balls – 15, Dismissals – 2
Rohit Sharma vs Harshal Patel: Runs – 27, Balls – 23, Dismissals – 3
Suryakumar Yadav vs Mohammed Siraj: Runs – 43, Balls – 19, Dismissals – 1
RCB vs MI Dream11 Team
Note: This is not our final Dream11 Team as we are not aware of the Toss Result/Final Playing XI of both teams at this moment.
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