Aakash Chopra excludes Chris Lynn, Mitchell McClenaghan from preferred MI playing XI

Defending champions Mumbai Indians will square off against Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of the upcoming Indian Premier League 2020 (IPL 2020) season. Just mere days before the launch of the tournament, esteemed Indian cricket commentator Aakash Chopra gave his take on the best possible playing XI for the Mumbai Indians. His list comes on the backdrop of a crucial change that was recently made to the Rohit Sharma-led squad, which saw their pace veteran Lasith Malinga pulling his name off the T20 event.

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IPL 2020: Aakash Chopra’s preferred Mumbai Indians playing XI featuring Rohit Sharma

On Tuesday, former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra took to Twitter and listed out a Mumbai Indians starting XI for the IPL 2020. While he gave Rohit Sharma his usual captaincy role, he named South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock as his opening partner. Even though the pair is known for opening the batting for Mumbai Indians, the franchise is fuelled by the arrival of dynamic Australian power-hitter Chris Lynn this year. Interestingly, Aakash Chopra chose to persist with the opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock by ignoring Chris Lynn at the top of the order.

The middle-order of his Mumbai Indians’ starting XI composes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya. Furthermore, Aakash Chopra included four specialist bowlers in the form of Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar and newcomers Nathan Coulter-Nile and Trent Boult. He omitted Mumbai Indians regular Mitchell McClenaghan in favour of his national teammate Boult, who was acquired by the franchise during the players trading and transfer window last year.

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Aakash Chopra’s Mumbai Indians starting XI ahead of IPL 2020

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Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah in MI squad for IPL 2020

Apart from the Aakash Chopra’s playing XI, captain Rohit Sharma is also joined by several uncapped Indian players like Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai Singh and Anmolpreet Singh in the Mumbai Indians IPL 2020 camp. Here is a look at the entire updated MI squad for the IPL 2020 season -

Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Anmolpreet Singh, Jayant Yadav, Aditya Tare, Anukul Roy, Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard, James Pattinson, Mitchell McClenaghan, Chris Lynn, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohsin Khan, Digvijay Deshmukh, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Trent Boult and Dhawal Kulkarni.

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Image source: Official Twitter accounts of Aakash Chopra and IPL20.COM