Reigning champions Mumbai Indians (MI), led by Rohit Sharma, is in red-hot form and the team will aim to consolidate its position on the Indian Premier League (IPL) points table when it clashes with an inconsistent Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday. This would be the second time the two teams met in IPL 2020, MI had thrashed KKR by 49 runs at the same venue, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
With its consistent performances, MI has emerged as one of the favorites for this year's title. The entire team has clicked as a unit with both the bowlers and the batsmen stepping up whenever needed. While MI has a in-form top-order comprising skipper Rohit and Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan have provided stability to their side in the middle-order. With the likes of Krunal Pandya, Keiron Pollard and Hardik Pandya, MI has some of the most destructive guns in their lower middle-order.
Meanwhile, MI bowling department also looks quite settled with lethal pacers like Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and James Pattinson being part of their arsenal. The trio has come with breakthroughs at crucial points and would look to continue with it. The spin workload will once again be shared by Rahul Chahar and Krunal.
On the other hand, KKR has plenty of issues in their backyard. The team’s major concern is the inconsistency of the players, especially their batsmen. KKR has Andre Russell in their middle-order, but the Caribbean all-rounder hasn't been up to the expectations, managing merely 71 runs from seven games.
KKR, undoubtedly, possess some of the fine batsmen of the game, comprising opener Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan, Nitish Rana, and skipper Dinesh Karthik. However, all of them have been inconsistent so far.
KKR's bowling, however, seems better than the batting department. Prasidh Krishna, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, and K Nagarkoti have been average with the ball and needs to up the ante as the league becomes serious in the coming days. While KKR will aim to avenge their last defeat, MI would be in no mood to spare any of their opponents in order to be at the pole position at the end of the league stage.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Chris Lynn, Dhawal Kulkarni, Digvijay Deshmukh, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, James Pattison, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prince Balwant Rai, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Tiwary, Sherfane Rutherford, Suryakumar Yadav, Trent Boult
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (captain), Eoin Morgan, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Ali Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrior, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Sunil Narine, Nikhil Naik, Tom Banton