High-flying Mumbai takes on struggling Rajasthan in the Tuesday encounter of Indian T20 League 2020.
Match Timings: Oct 06, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
Rajasthan have found themselves on a sinking boat with a series of questions which needs to be solved before Stokes give them a thumbs up after a week. Sharjah glory is blurred for the pink outfit as they lost back to back games in last one week. The top-order is not performing including Buttler who got a good start but didn’t convert into a big one. The middle-order is still pushing Rajasthan backwards. In the last game, Mahipal Lomror gave them a slight glimpse of relief but it wasn’t enough. Uthappa might be dropped finally and Smith can try young Yashavi Jaiswal at the top, demoting himself at number 3 or 4. Unadkat is also off the colours and Rajasthan needs to look back at Ankit Rajpoot. They have various options to try out but overcoming Mumbai in Abu Dhabi is yet to be a big task with this struggling pool of players.
Meanwhile, the defending champions have the alternative win-lose ratio. When they lose, they suddenly win a game to find the rhythm. Mumbai edged past Hyderabad in Sharjah to find them in top two with three wins out of five games. The big concern was also solved for Mumbai as De Cock scored a fine half-century in the previous game. Trent Boult was also excellent, picking two wickets for 28 runs. Rohit Sharma is pretty confident to take the top spot one more time as their NRR is quite strong. Overall, Mumbai unit has got all the points ticked for the playoffs.
Pitch Report
Abu Dhabi’s track is a fine batting track and has good help to bowlers. With the new ball, pacers can take advantage and spin can control runs in middle-overs. The batting first trend is now favouring the sides so the toss will be important.
Possible XI
Mumbai
Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa/Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat/Ankit Rajpoot
Key Players
Mumbai
Rohit Sharma
This season so far – M: 5, Runs: 176, Avg: 35.20
Kieron Pollard
This season so far – M: 5, Runs: 163, SR: 208.97
Rajasthan
Sanju Samson
This season so far – M: 4, Runs: 171, Avg: 42.75
Jofra Archer
M: 4, Wickets: 4, Eco: 6.75
