IPL 2022: Mumbai Indians are in serious need of a win; no better team to face for them than the Kolkata Knight Riders as they have an incredibly lopsided record: MI 22-7 KKR! Both teams will clash on Wednesday at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
Rohit Sharma’s side have once again started off the season with losses: they were downed by Delhi Capitals in a game where they looked on course for a victory; then Jos Buttler’s blazing century put them in the ground.
Shreyas Iyer’s team, on the other hand, are coming off two comfortable wins, versus vs CSK and then PBKS, sandwiched between is their close loss to RCB.
Venue: MCA, Pune
Both the matches in Pune so far have been won by teams batting first, and dew in this city has made much less impact than it has done in the games in Mumbai. With two teams packed with power-hitter, another high-scoring encounter is on cards.
MI news and predicted XI:
The 5-time champions are now bolstered by the return of Suryakumar Yadav, who is expected to play today, replacing Anmolpreet Singh. This will provide the much-needed strength and depth in MI’s batting, which has let them down, especially in the finishing department, so far.
Also, with Basil Thampi being taken to the cleaners in both matches, Jaydev Unadkat could get his first game of the season.
MI predicted XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Daniel Sams, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Jaydev Unadkat
KKR news and predicted XI:
Pat Cummins is out of quarantine and available for today’s game. However, whom he replaces is a conundrum for KKR: Tim Southee, who was expected to make way for Cummins, has 5 wickets in two games and has been excellent in all phases of the game; this leaves Sam Billings as the overseas who Cummins could come in for. That would also mean, then, Sheldon Jackson to replace the expensive Shivam Mavi.
Aaron Finch is still unavailable as he’s was in Pakistan until yesterday for the white-ball matches.
KKR predicted XI: Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
