Monday awaits an exciting contest between Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians with two of the biggest names of modern Indian cricket going head to head. However, in this IPL so far they are poles apart in terms of their position in the points table.
Mumbai head into this contest after a big win against KKR, while Kohli saw KL Rahul single-handedly torment his team in Dubai. Heading into their third match each, both captains would like to end on the right side of the result. Here is the match preview of RCB vs MI.
Talking about Mumbai Indians first up, Rohit and co will be confident after their big win over Kolkata Knight Riders in their last game. Rohit himself scored a match-winning 80 after which his bowlers restricted the opposition from getting the runs. With the power hitters Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya, Mumbai have a formidable batting line-up with Rohit himself and Quinton de Kock at the top.
Clash of Titans in Dubai
Their pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult and James Pattinson is probably the best pace attack in the contest and their performance against KKR thoroughly proved it. Heading into this contest, Mumbai will be more confident than their opposition, given the fact that they have a better team combination with their big guns firing.
RCB, on the other end, will be looking for a win. Since 2014, they have failed to win two back to back games in the IPL. This is a stat, they would like to change heading into the Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians contest.
Their bowling attack was taken to the cleaners in the last game, as Steyn and co had no answer to Rahul’s brutal assault. Heading into their next game, it is their bowling attack which will be in focus again. Going the journey against Kings XI Punjab, the RCB bowlers are likely to do their homework when they face Mumbai in Dubai.
Head to Head
Both teams have played 27 games so far against each other with Mumbai way ahead with 18 wins as opposed to RCB’s nine. In the last five encounters between the two teams, Mumbai have won four games out of five, keeping their dominance on against Bangalore.
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Weather And Pitch Conditions
Dubai is the venue for the Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians match. While this will be MI’s first game in Dubai this season, RCB have played both their games here and will have a better idea of the conditions.
Dew will play a part more in the second innings than the first. Meanwhile, six of the first eight games have been won by the team batting first. With CSK losing two back to back games while chasing, the trend is expected to change and hopefully from this match onwards.
Team News- Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians
Both teams are likely to go in with unchanged sides. While Mumbai would not like to tinker with their winning combination, RCB do not have a good bench strength to choose from with Chris Morris injured. Moeen Ali too, is yet to get a game this season.
Squads
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma, (C), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McCleneghan, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult, Chris Lynn, Digvijay Deshmukh, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prince Balwant Rai Singh, Saurabh Tiwary
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli (C)AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Gurkeerat Singh, Moeen Ali, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Parthiv Patel, Pawan Negi, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, Dale Steyn, Isuru Udana, Joshua Philippe, Kane Richardson, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahamad.