Preview: Mumbai Indians Look To Take Lead In Race For 2nd Spot, Face Resurgent RCB

Royal Challengers Bangalore, fresh off grabbing their first win of IPL 2019 against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday, will be looking to continue their resurgence when they take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. Mumbai Indians, who are still third on the IPL Points Table with 8 points, lost some momentum in their campaign by narrowly losing to Rajasthan Royals on Saturday. With the season having reached its halfway mark, the battle for the top four spots in the table is heating up. MI are currently tied with Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab on 8 points.

RCB is placed last on the table with just one win in seven outings, but the fact that they beat KXIP at home on Saturday will surely motivate them. 

Speaking after Saturday's game, Kohli said his players still have the desire to go out and express themselves. Ringing warning bells for the home side, Man of the Match AB de Villiers said after RCB's victory that he loves playing at the Wankhede. 

Also, the clinical way that RCB chased down KXIP's total of 173 shows that the batting unit is definitely in form. With Dale Steyn joining the squad, the bowling too will wear a bolstered look. In fact, uncapped Navdeep Saini would like to take the opportunity of learning from the pro in the remaining games. Saini has by far been the most impressive bowler for RCB and Mumbai Indians too would look to play him cautiously.

In the batting department, Mumbai have little worries as both Rohit and opening partner Quinton de Kock have been in fine form. With Kieron Pollard also showing that he still has match-winning abilities and Hardik Pandya finishing with a bang in almost all games, the batting part of things look sorted for the home team.

The same though cannot be said about the bowling as only Krunal Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah have looked good on a consistent basis. While one can't be too harsh on the bowlers considering that the wicket at the Wankhede is known to aide batsmen, but considering the RCB line-up, Rohit will definitely want his boys to pull up their socks.

Squads

Mumbai Indians: Siddhesh Lad, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Alzarri Joseph, Jason Behrendorff, Jasprit Bumrah, Anmolpreet Singh, Aditya Tare, Evin Lewis, Yuvraj Singh, Pankaj Jaiswal, Anukul Roy, Ben Cutting, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan, Barinder Sran, Rasikh Salam, Jayant Yadav

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Marcus Stoinis, Moeen Ali, Akshdeep Nath, Pawan Negi, Tim Southee, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Heinrich Klaasen, Himmat Singh, Colin de Grandhomme, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Milind Kumar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Prayas Barman, Umesh Yadav, Kulwant Khejroliya, Dale Steyn

Match starts at 8 pm

(With IANS inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

Mumbai Indians Royal Challengers Bangalore Virat Kohli AB de Villiers Rohit Sharma Kieron Pollard IPL 2019 Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Match 31 Cricket