Published: May 13, 2016, 04:15 PM (IST)
Edited: May 13, 2016, 06:37 PM (IST)
It is Match 43 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 where Mumbai Indians (MI) take on Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at MI’s adopted home ground, Visakhapatnam on May 13. It will be a crucial game, especially for MI, who have just 6 wins from 11 games and will be eyeing a place in the playoffs. MI will come off confident against KXIP after thrilling win against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 6-wickets. Once again it was Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler for MI’s rescue as the top-order were shackled early on in the game. After achieving a victory in a must-win match, MI have to win every game here on. Before the match, here are the probably XI for MI: Full Cricket Scorecard: Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI Punjab, IPL 2016 Match 43 at Visakhapatnam
Top-order: Skipper Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel are likely to open the innings once again after fair outing they have portrayed so far. With Rohit’s willow being silent over the last two matches, one can expect good amount of runs from him. In at No.3 will be Ambati Rayudu who played a steady innings of 44 runs off 47 balls against the RCB in the previous tie. If any one of the three stay till the end, MI will have a good total on the board.
Middle-order: Pollard and Buttler have a lethal combination in the middle-order for the defending champions and can take the burden of scoring maximum runs particularly in the death overs. Hardik Pandya may get a game instead of Nitish Rana as he under-performed in his debut IPL match against RCB unlike Hardik, who can be handy with bat at time of need. Harbhajan Singh and Krunal Pandya can bolster the lower-middle-order by their power hitting expertise.
Bowlers: Mitchell McClenaghan and Tim Southee have controlled the run flow for the MI and will spearhead the attack with only Indian star, Jasprit Bumrah. In the spin department, Harbhajan has the services of Krunal, who was the man-of-the-match in their previous game. Rohit Sharma can also use the services of Pollard for his effective medium pace attack in mid-innings.
Mumbai Indians likely XI against Kings XI Punjab: Rohit Sharma (c), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Keiron Pollard, Jos Buttler, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah
(Aditya Sahay is a journalist with CricketCountry.com who is completely into sports and loves writing about cricket in general. He can be followed on Twitter at adisahay7)
