Mumbai Indians is in a familiar territory, having lived up to its reputation of slow starter. With time running out, the most successful Indian Premier League couldn’t have asked for a better opposition than Kolkata Knight Riders to turn the tide in its favour.
Despite Knight Riders having won the IPL twice, Mumbai Indians has been its bogey team. It reflects in the fact that MI dominates the head-to-head record, winning 22 of the 29 games.
No wonder then despite the contrasting start to the tournament for both the teams, MI will be hoping to open its account on Wednesday night at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s International Stadium.
The onus will be on captain Rohit Sharma to come good against his favourite opposition. Rohit has amassed a whopping 1,015 runs - most against any IPL outfit - versus KKR. He will be gunning to lead from the front.
But Rohit, who will be hoping for Suryakumar Yadav to be cleared to take the field, will realise the task will be the toughest this time around. After all, the rejigged Knight Riders has appeared to be one of the most settled units early on in IPL 2022.
Umesh Yadav has been a revelation with the new ball and he will be hoping to continue his streak of early strikes against a batting unit that’s heavily reliant on openers Rohit and Ishan Kishan.
Besides, mystery spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine; powerhitter Andre Russell; and the two Mumbaikars - captain Shreyas Iyer and opener Ajinkya Rahane - having found their mojo, the Knight Riders will fancy its chances to earn a second successive win versus MI.
Teams (From):
Kolkata Knight Riders: Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Aman Khan, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammed Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Buddhi, Ramandeep Singh, SuryakumarYadav, Tilak Verma, Tim David, Arjun Tendulkar, Basil Thampi, Hrithik Shokeen, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Jofra Archer, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Riley Meredith, Tymal Mills, Arshad Khan, Daniel Sams, Dewald Brevis, Fabian Allen, Kieron Pollard, Sanjay Yadav, Aryan Juyal and Ishan Kishan.
Match starts at 7.30 p.m.
