Big picture: Lots at stake for both teams
Things could have been different for Hazlewood if Jitesh Sharma had held on to Jos Buttler’s catch during RCB’s game against Gujarat Titans. Ifs and buts aside, he has been targeted and taken down – by Shubman Gill and Buttler at Ahmedabad and Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant in Lucknow.
Bethell, too, hasn’t been able to have the impact Phil Salt had. He has been caught in the deep three times in the powerplay with restricted fields. With Salt continuing to be unavailable, Bethell will have to find a way to get among the runs.
Jasprit Bumrah’s surprising stretch of poor form makes MI’s bowling fragile. It has also left their powerplay bowling in a mess. Their economy of 11.61 is the worst of all teams this season and their average of 49.78 is the fourth-worst.
A lot of things need to come together for MI to win. They will have some hope, though, as RCB have suffered back-to-back losses to lower-ranked sides.
Form guide
Royal Challengers Bengaluru LLWWL (last five games, most recent first)
Mumbai Indians WLLLW
Key question
Team news: Suryakumar available, Hardik in doubt
As mentioned earlier, Salt won’t be available. So RCB will likely go with an unchanged side.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (probable) 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Jacob Bethell, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Suyash Sharma, 12 Rasikh Salam
Suryakumar Yadav will arrive in Raipur on Sunday morning and Hardik Pandya has joined the squad. Pandya had missed the last game due to back spasms and wasn’t part of the optional nets on Friday. He will continue to be assessed.
Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 3 Naman Dhir, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt)/Corbin Bosch, 7 Robin Minz/Raj Bawa, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Trent Boult, 10 AM Ghazanfar, 11 Jasprit Bumrah, 12 Raghu Sharma
In the spotlight: Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ryan Rickelton
Pitch and conditions
The last IPL game in Raipur was played in 2016, and only two T20Is have been played here since January 2018. So there are a lot of unknowns for the teams to contend with. The upside is that there will be a fresh pitch. While the pitches in Raipur are traditionally slow, this one is expected to be good for batting. That could be challenged by the rains that pelted on Saturday. Sunday’s weather is set to be fair with the temperature going up to 40 degrees during the day and 24 degrees at night.
Stats and trivia
- This will be MI’s first game in Raipur.
- Jitesh averages 8.00 from eight innings.
- Rickelton’s record splits dramatically by location. At home, he has averaged 54.5 and strikes at 178.7 this season; away, those numbers drop to 22.3 and 147.7.
Ekanth is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
