The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will see defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) face a lowly SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Delhi on May 4. While MI seemed to have regained their lost touch from a successful last season, SRH are struggling with only one win in seven games and placed at the bottom of the table. MI's resurgence cannot be credited to only a few players as the entire team stood up when it mattered the most.
However, few players in their ranks emerged as the pillars of their success that helped them steady their ships while going into the crucial middle phase of the league this season.
Here are some of the key players for Mumbai Indians (MI):
Kieron Pollard
The West Indian proved again why he is rated so highly in the T20 format when he smashed brilliant 87 runs off just 34 balls to fashion yet another historic win for MI over Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Apart from his heroics with the bat, Pollard also contributed with important wickets of Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina earlier on in the game to jolt CSK's top-order. This kind of all-round display in combination with his leadership acumen makes him one of the key members of the squad and a player to watch out for against SRH.
Rohit Sharma
The MI skipper looked at his devastating best when we took the CSK bowlers to the cleaners with his effortless stroke-play at the start of a mammoth run-chase. His quick and intelligent starts with Quinton De Kock in the powerplay have helped MI gain the much-needed confidence which they lacked at the start of the season.
With 250 runs in his kitty in seven games, Sharma is yet to make a big score in IPL 2021 but that can surely change considering the small size of the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi and the struggling SRH bowling line-up.
Quinton de Kock
Coming from a terrific IPL 2020 season where the South African scored in excess of 500 runs, De Kock has found his going slow so far with 155 runs in six games. However, the wicket-keeper batsman has already played few hardly knocks at the top of the order with skipper Sharma that have helped MI regain their lost winning momentum.
With serious contributions from behind the stumps through his agile keeping, De Kock remains a serious threat to the opposition. His quick feet against the spinners also act as an incentive due to the reliance of SRH on spinner Rashid Khan.