Red-hot Mumbai look to extend winning run against Dhawan-less Kings

Big picture: Two teams on different trajectories

There’s a popular meme template: how it started and how it’s going. Mumbai Indians’ journey so far in IPL 2023 fits that perfectly. They began the season with two crushing defeats before bouncing back with three wins on the trot.

Even before those two defeats, their batting had looked solid on paper. But the lack of runs from Cameron Green and Suryakumar Yadav threw a spanner in the works. With both coming into their own over the last two games, Mumbai look a much stronger unit.

For Punjab Kings, Mumbai’s opponents on Saturday, things have gone the other way round. After winning back-to-back games – something they failed to do last year – they managed just one more win in their next four outings.

Kings’ plan with bat was that their captain Shikhar Dhawan plays the anchor’s role and others hit around him. But Dhawan’s shoulder injury caught them without a back-up plan. They also need to figure out their best combination of overseas players. Sikandar Raza was the Player of the Match against Lucknow Super Giants but was left out for the RCB game. Kings may have to revisit that decision.

Mumbai Indians WWWLL (last five matches, most recent first)
Punjab Kings LWLLW

Kings will once again be without Dhawan. On Thursday, their fielding coach Trevor Gonsalves said Dhawan would take “at least another two to three days” to be fully fit. Mumbai will be optimistic about Jofra Archer as he has shown vast improvement since he felt the discomfort in his right elbow post the first match. He even bowled full tilt during the practice session on Thursday, and Jason Behrendorff, too, said on Friday that Archer was “not too far away”.

Mumbai Indians: If Archer is available, he could come in for Riley Meredith. Else Mumbai could field an unchanged side with Tilak Varma and Meredith as their Impact Player pair.

Probable XII: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Cameron Green, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Tim David, 7 Nehal Wadhera, 8 Jofra Archer/Riley Meredith, 9 Arjun Tendulkar, 10 Hrithik Shokeen, 11 Piyush Chawla, 12 Jason Behrendorff

Punjab Kings: Kings may consider bringing back Raza for Matthew Short and Kagiso Rabada for Nathan Ellis. Prabhsimran Singh and Rahul Chahar could once again be their Impact pair.

Probable XII: 1 Atharva Taide, 2 Prabhsimran Singh, 3 Liam Livingstone, 4 Harpreet Singh, 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 M Shahrukh Khan, 8 Sam Curran (capt), 9 Harpreet Brar, 10 Kagiso Rabada/Nathan Ellis, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Rahul Chahar

Pitch and conditions: Win toss, bowl first

This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.

Red-hot Mumbai look to extend winning run against Dhawan-less Kings

Big picture: Two teams on different trajectories

Pitch and conditions: Win toss, bowl first

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