Defending champions Mumbai Indians will square off with 2008 champions Rajasthan Royals in Match 20 of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
The Rohit Sharma-led side climbed up to the top spot in the IPL standings after registering a comfortable 34-run victory over the David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous fixture.Four-time champions Mumbai Indians are leading the table with three wins from five matches.
Mumbai Indians did not have a dream start to their campaign as they slumped to five-wicket defeat at the hands of MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, they rebounded strongly to outclass Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs in their second fixture.
Subsequently, the defending champions suffered a Super Over defeat against Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) before registering back-to-back wins against Kings XI Punjab (48 runs) and SRH.
Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, are standing at the fifth place in the eight-team table with two wins from four matches they have played so far.The Steve Smith-led team has registered 16-run and four-wicket victories over CSK and KXIP respectively, while their defeats came against KKR (by 37 runs) and RCB (by 8 wickets).
Going into the clash, Rajasthan Royals will be desperate to clinch a victory after losing two matches in a row. The franchise will once again rely on their skipper Steve Smith and batsman Sanju Samson and Jofra Archer in pace, while Jos Buttler who has failed to impress with the bat so far will look to return to form.
Meanwhile, Robin Uthappa and Riyan Parag haven't been able to contribute much in the side's first four matches.
Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, look a much-balanced side and will head into the clash as favourites. All-rounders Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya and batsman Quinton de Kock have shone for the side.
The head-to-head record is equal between the two sides. Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians have faced each other in a total of 23 encounters, with each side clinching wins on 11 occasions. One meeting between the two sides ended in no result.
Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals, Dream11 Team Prediction:
Wicketkeeper: Quinton de Kock
Batsmen: Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Suryakumar Yadav
All-rounders: Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya
Bowlers: Jofra Archer,Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Shreyas Gopal
Probable XIs:
Rajasthan Royals Probable XI: Jos Buttler, Steve Smith (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron.
Mumbai Indians Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.
The two squads are as follows:
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Rajpoot, David Miller, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Varun Aaron, Aniruddha Joshi, Manan Vohra, Andrew Tye, Shashank Singh, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McClenaghan, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Mohsin Khan, Fabian Allen, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, Digvijay Deshmukh, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock, Aditya Tare.
