India is currently going through the second wave of Covid-19. The only respite for the people right now is cricket. Everyone has been enjoying the sport since IPL 2021 began. We gear up for the 24th match of this thrilling tournament. It is the Mumbai Indians taking on the Rajasthan Royals in what promises to be an exciting encounter. This match will take place at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Mumbai Indians have pulled off an absolute MI-esque tournament up until now. They are considered slow starters and they have certainly started off slowly. Having won only 2 out of their 5 games they currently sit at the 4th position. Their batsman were unable to score runs on the slow Chennai wickets and change in environment will certainly boost their confidence.

Rajasthan Royals have had an on off tournament. They lose a few games in a row then win one. The pattern has continued since the last season. RR also received a huge blow when most of their players travelled back to their countries due to the rising Covid-19 cases in the country. Rajasthan are now falling short of foreign players. This set back can hamper a teams confidence. The men in pink should put all of this behind them and look to qualify for the play offs.

Middle Over Struggles for Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians have struggled with their batting this year. Rohit Sharma is leading from the front trying to anchor the innings, but is hardly receiving any support. The Mumbai Indians middle-order has not fired barring a game and this is certainly something to be worried about. Surya Kumar Yadav is getting starts but is unable to score big. Quinton de Kock has been faltering against quality spin bowling. Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard have looked off colour. All in all Mumbai needs to solve their middle muddle if they have to get back to winning ways.

Rajasthan Royals have had their share of troubles with the bat. Skipper Sanju Samson has been their best batsman. Miller has certainly chipped in with runs. Apart from these two there is no real threat in the line up. Rahul Tewatia has been playing the role of the finisher decently. Rajasthan loses too many wickets in the powerplay which forces their young middle order to play cautiously. Players like Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube etc have too much pressure if the top order keeps failing. There were many positives in their last game and the men in pink will look to move forward and keep winning.

Chris Morris proving his worth

The Mumbai bowling has covered up for their batters mistakes quite often. Rohit Sharma has rotated his bolwers brilliantly. The dynamic duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult have performed consistently irrespective of the pitch. The wicket at Delhi might provide some assistance to the spinners once the ball gets old. Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya will be key in that case. The men in blue do not have to worry too much about their bowling. The management will just hope that all of them can continue their brilliant run.

Rajasthan were quite decent with the ball. The Wankhede stadium is considered to be a high scoring ground. On that kind of a wicket they restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to a paltry 133. Their million dollar baby Chris Morris has proved why he is paid so much. He ended up picking 4 wickets conceding only 23 runs. He was their player of the match. Other than that youngster Chetan Sakariya has shown promise. Rajasthan will want their bowling unit to do well if they want to keep winning.

Head to Head: Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals

Played: 23

MI won: 11

RR won: 11

NR: 1

Mumbai Indians have the bragging rights over all the teams except Rajasthan Royals. The men in pink have always found a way to keep the 5-time winners quiet. Rajasthan Royals have won 5 times against the defending champions in their last 6 encounters.

Weather and Pitch Report

The temperature is going to be around 40 degrees. The humidity will be 15%. The pitch has something to offer for both batsman and bowlers. The old ball will help the spinners a bit. Dew might be a factor so teams will prefer to chase.

Team News

Mumbai Indians – Even though they lost the previous game they might not tweak with their line up. The only change that might come is a fast bowler being included in place of Jayant Yadav.

Rajasthan Royals- They have lost most of their foreign players. They will make use of whatever players they have for this game.

Squads

Mumbai Indians – Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Adam Milne, Chris Lynn, Jayant Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Quinton de Kock, Anukul Roy, Mohsin Khan, Arjun Tendulkar, Marco Jansen, Yudhvir Singh.

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler(wk), Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson (c, wk), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman, Andrew Tye, Shreyas Gopal, KC Cariappa, Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Kuldip Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Akash Singh.