MI vs KKR: Mumbai Indians face uphill task against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL clash

Mumbai Indians will face an uphill task against firepower of Kolkata Knight Riders batters when teams clash here on Sunday in ir IPL contest, with both former champions looking to put ir campaigns back on track.

While Mumbai Indians were able to break ir winless streak in ir last game against Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders went down fighting on Friday night against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a high-scoring contest at Eden Gardens.

However, despite winning previous game, most successful IPL team, Mumbai Indians, will be under added pressure at Wankhede Stadium, for y have t been able to harness ir potential so far in IPL 2023.

With two wins and as many defeats, KKR have had ir share of highs and lows and are placed fourth on points table with a good net run rate (0.711) as compared to Mumbai Indians who are ninth with two points and an NRR of -0.879.

Rohit Sharma made a match-winning 65 against Delhi Capitals but challenge for MI captain will be to attain consistency, especially when or senior, Suryakumar Yadav, is going through a lean patch.

Mumbai Indians are likely to be without ir ace pacer Jofra Archer, who has been sidelined by fresh elbow trouble post his appearance in first match of season. Jason Behrendorff and Riley Meredith will have to shoulder responsibility in fast-bowling department, while Piyush Chawla will be expected to carry forward his form from previous game where he took 3/22.

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MI will bank on ir young guns Tim David, Cameron Green, Tilak Varma and Ishan Kishan to fire, given that KKR have shown incredible fight right till end to pull off a stunning win against Gujarat Titans, and fight till last ball against SRH.

Rinku Singh will be biggest threat with bat for MI since left-hander has smacked an unbeaten 48 and 58 in his last two outings batting at 7.

Besides, skipper Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Shardul Thakur have been among runs for KKR, which indicates MI will have to be at ir best in all departments.

KKR skipper Rana banished his ordinary run with bat, scoring 75 off 41 balls on Friday, and anuncing his return to form. On or hand, in his last two outings with bat, Rinku has alone hit a grand total of five fours and 10 sixes while executing two high-quality kcks in death overs. focus will once again be on talented young batter in KKR line-up.

However, KKR have some concerns too in form of ir all-rounder Andre Russell, who has struggled with bat in this IPL. Russell could t complete his quota of overs against SRH in Kolkata on Friday night as he suffered cramps, but his three wickets did keep KKR in game for long.

It remains to be seen if KKR would want to try out explosive English batter Jason Roy at top, given that Gurbaz has performed his role at top with flair. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have been amongst wickets for KKR, who also have Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das joining m recently.

Squads: Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vid, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Riley Meredith Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Soue, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N. Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das (wicketkeeper), Mandeep Singh and Jason Roy.