Mumbai Indians have won the toss and elected to field first vs Rajasthan Royals in Sharjah. Both the teams made two changes in their playing XI as for Mumbai, Ishan Kishan and Jimmy Neesham are back in the squad for Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya. For Rajasthan, pacer Kuldip Yadav is making his IPL debut.
This is a must-win game for both the teams as they are tied at 10 points in the points table. The winner of this clash will march a step ahead in race to playoffs.
What captains said during the toss?
Rohit Sharma: We are going to bowl first. We have tried everything in this UAE leg, we have tried batting first, we have tried bowling first. The wicket here doesn’t change too much, so we thought let’s have a target in front of us when we bat. We know where we stand at the moment. Every individual knows what they need to do. We have done enough talking, we have done the preparation, it’s about coming here and executing. We need to read the situation, not to worry about what is happening elsewhere, not to worry about the table as well. If we play well, the results will take care of itself. Two changes: Ishan comes back for de Kock and Neesham for Krunal. We looked at how the game is being played here. The pacers have done well with their change-ups, the pitch tends to get slower and slower. It was unfortunate, Quinton is a very key player for us, so is Krunal. Unfortunately we have to do those changes and these guys have to miss out.
Sanju Samson: In this tournament, we face different challenges in each game. We have a really good team to face those challenges. We have a decent combination which can suit this wicket. Definitely looking forward to an exciting game in this venue. Approach – we have to keep it simple, we’ll have to keep trusting and keep on trusting our own team-mates as well. Sanga in the team meeting just said to trust our routines. We have made two changes. Shreyas Gopal comes in for Mayank Markande and Kuldip Yadav comes in for Akash Singh.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Shivam Dube, Glenn Phillips, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, Kuldip Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jayant Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
