Test of Rohit Sharma's captaincy as Mumbai Indians plot comeback in IPL 2023

Languishing in the bottom half of the points table, Mumbai Indians hope their bowling and batting fire on all cylinders against high-flying Rajasthan Royals at Wankhede

Hosts and five-time champions Mumbai Indians need to pull out all stops when they take on high-flying Rajasthan Royals in a key IPL contest at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.

Successive defeats against Punjab Kings, at home, and defending champions Gujarat Titans, away, while chasing have put MI under severe pressure going into the clash against the Royals. MI, who finished tenth in the last season, are in the bottom half of the points table with six points at the halfway stage of their round robin campaign.

Royals, on the other hand, posted the highest total at their home ground, the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, on way to inflicting a second successive defeat on four-time title winners Chennai Super Kings for their fifth victory in their previous encounter. 

Also Read: Watched him grow into a quality cricketer, a good leader: Boucher on Rohit Sharma completing 10 years as Mumbai Indians captain

RR high on confidence

The visitors, thus, will go into the only round robin clash of the season against MI. Their confidence is pretty high with 10 points, already in their kitty, along with a positive net run rate which is close to 1.0. Last season the score was 1-1 between the two teams in matches played at the D Y Patil Stadium.

Mumbai’s batting has failed to click on a consistent basis and in bowling too they are sorely missing Jasprit Bumrah. Skipper Rohit Sharma has not really got going, as indicated by his modest tally of 181 runs in seven games so far. 

MI need their captain to score fast and big as well to put on a big partnership with fellow-opener Ishan Kishan who has blown hot and cold to amass 183 runs at 25 per innings.

If these two click in unison, along with the misfiring Suryakumar Yadav, there is no reason why MI cannot put up a big score with the talented Tilak Varma and Cameron Green to follow and Tim David there to apply the finishing touches.

Chawla’s still spinning it

In bowling, it is the experienced leg-spinner Piyush Chawla who leads the charts by bowling well in the middle overs to snare 11 wickets thus far. Left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff has come up with good stuff on occasions to grab eight wickets in six games. But the two younger spinners—Kumar Karthikeya and Hrithik Shokeen—have not been penetrative or economical enough in the middle overs.

On the other hand, the Royals seem to have covered most of their bases. With Jos Buttler continuing his great form into yet another IPL season and youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal even stealing the show from the England star in their comprehensive victory over CSK, the Royals have a sound opening pair to depend upon.

MI bowlers need to break this opening partnership early to take the upper hand although Royals have skipper Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal and Shimron Hetmyer to follow along with finisher Dhruv Jurel who has impressed in the limited chances he has got.

Seasoned left-arm pacer Trent Boult sat out in the match against CSK and is bound to return for the MI game on a track that generally assists the pacers. Sandeep Sharma, though lacking in pace, has also performed his role creditably. It will be interesting to see whether the Royals field all three of their spin weapons—R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa—at the Wankhede as they did at home against CSK. 

33.33
MI’s win percentage in the last two seasons of the IPL

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