Red-hot Mumbai look to extend winning run against Dhawan-less Kings – T20 IPL 2024

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.

Form guide

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

Team news: Archer-watch

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”.

Impact Player strategy

Mumbai Indians: Mumbai could field an unchanged side with Tilak Varma and Behrendorff 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 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

Stats that matter

Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan have given Mumbai flying starts in IPL 2023. Among those pairs who have opened at least three times this season, Rohit and Kishan’s scoring rate of 9.61 is second only to Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 9.75.
Against Kagiso Rabada, Rohit has managed only 89 runs in 74 balls with four dismissals. Kishan, though, has smashed the seamer for 70 off 42 balls while getting out only once.
So far in this season, Kings have lost three or more wickets inside the powerplay on three occasions, the joint-most for a team along with Kolkata Knight Riders.

Pitch and conditions: Win toss, bowl first

The big question

If Livingstone and Curran are locked in, who should be Kings other two overseas players?

219 votes

Raza, Rabada

Rajapaksa, Rabada

Short, Rabada

Raza, Ellis

Rajapaksa, Ellis

Short, Ellis

Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo