Mumbai and Chennai kick start the mega event of Indian T20 League 2020 on Saturday.
Match Timing: Sep 19, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
Defending champions Mumbai takes on 3-times champion Chennai in the opening clash of the Indian T20 League. Both sides have a strong lineup and included some major players from the last year’s auction. With the inclusion of Boult and Nathan Coulter Nile, Mumbai‘s bowling unit is pretty strong. Lynn was also bought in the auction but Rohit Sharma would go with last year’s yop performer De Cock in the opening slot. With Surya and Ishan Kishan in middle and Pollard and Pandya at finishing end, Mumbai has a quality batting lineup. The spin department will be led by Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya.
Meanwhile, Chennai suffered a big blow in the name of Raina and he was the key asset for the yellow army at top-order. Harbhajan Singh has also been ruled out due to personal reasons. Chennai can adapt to the UAE’s conditions very well as it’s quite similar to Chennai. The dhoni-led side has a bunch of quality spinners and the captain cool might go with Jadeja, Chawla, and Tahir. In top-order, Watson and Rayudu are expected to open for Super Kings, following Faf and Kedar in middle. Dhoni and Bravo play the finishers. Both sides are great on paper but whoever adapts the conditions well, will draw the first blood in the tournament.
Pitch Report
Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi will host the opening match. The surface is good for batting and it has a slight help for the spinners. Being the first game on the surface, the track will offer a good amount of runs. The weather is pretty sunny in Abu Dhabi, a perfect T20 condition.
Possible XI
Mumbai
Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
Chennai
Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir, Shradul Thakur
Key Players
Mumbai
Quinton de Kock
Last season: 529 runs, Avg: 35, SR: 133
Kieron Pollard
Caribbean T20 League 2020 – Runs: 207, Avg:51.75, SR: 204.95
Chennai
Imran Tahir
Caribbean T20 League 2020 – Wickets: 15 Avg: 15.93, Eco: 5.83
MS Dhoni
Indian T20 League – Runs: 4432 Avg: 42.20
