An inconsistent Mumbai Indians will hope that ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah returns to his menacing best, which is essential for them to stop an explosive Sunrisers Hyderabad batting unit in its tracks in a potentially high-scoring IPL match in Mumbai on Thursday. Coming off a three-month long injury layoff, Bumrah is yet to find the accuracy which makes him a tough customer to deal with. After a rather tidy outing against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Bumrah struggled to nail his yorkers and was taken apart by Delhi Capitals’ Karun Nair as he leaked 44 runs in that game.
The 31-year-old will face stern test against a Sunrisers’ fearsome line-up comprising Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen.
But the five-time champions will also want former captain Rohit Sharma to get back to his run-making ways at the earliest as his current tally is an underwhelming 56 runs from five matches at an average of 11.20.
It has played a massive role in them languishing at the seventh place in the points table with just two wins, and those results were largely built around the contributions of Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma.
Rohit, who has persisted with his ultra-aggressive approach, has struggled against left-arm pace but there could be some respite given SRH don’t have any frontline left-arm seamer unless they bring in Jaydev Unadkat.
While Suryakumar has still not been at his brutal best, being retired out against Lucknow Super Giants served as a wake-up call for Tilak.
After that difficult outing in Lucknow, Tilak has responded with scores of 56 (29b) and 59 (33b) to indicate his return to form.
Naman Dhir remains a vital cog for MI as he has been given the role of an aggressor with the bat in the death overs, but otherwise he has been their best fielder this season.
The way MI clinched a win from Delhi with accurate fielding might just ignite the missing spark in their camp.
Interestingly, both MI and SRH were able to snap their disappointing run with impressive wins in their previous outings. But it remains to be seen if they are able to attain consistency, which will define their future in the competition.
SRH’s struggles
Nearing the halfway mark, the Sunrisers are also struggling to find their range, tottering at ninth on the table with only net run rate separating the two teams after four losses and two wins in six matches each. MI has a NRR of 0.10 while SRH’s run-rate stands at -1.24.
But MI will have to be wary of SRH’s batters who have given signs of finding back their mojo after a lull.
Each of the top four — Head, Abhishek, Klaasen and Kishan — fired on all cylinders to stun Punjab Kings to give SRH their second win of the season.
Chasing, SRH scored nearly 250 runs to beat PBKS by eight wickets with their batters, especially Abhishek, finding their lost rhythm collectively after the 2016 winners lost four matches on the trot.
Coming off a splendid 55-ball 141, Abhishek will look to draw confidence from his last outing here at the Wankhede Stadium in February this year when he took apart England’s bowling to score 135 in the fifth T20I for India.
Kishan too would be eager to make this outing against his former franchise count on what had been his home ground for several seasons.
The nature of the Wankhede Stadium pitch often ensures tall totals here, but the bowlers can look forward to some bounce off the surface.
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Minz (wk), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Shrijith Krishnan (wk), Bevon Jacobs, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Will Jacks, Mitchell Santner, Raj Angad Bawa, Vignesh Puthur, Corbin Bosch, Trent Boult, Karn Sharma, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley, VS Penmetsa, Arjun Tendulkar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Jasprit Bumrah.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Smaran Ravichandran, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Wiaan Mulder, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.
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