Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and asked Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to bat first in a crunch Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
KKR, who must win this game in order to qualify for the playoffs, made one change to the team that won against Kings XI Punjab on Friday, bringing in Prasidh Krishna for Piyush Chawla.
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Mumbai, for whom a victory would mean securing a top—two finish, ringed in two changes with Mitchell McClenaghan and Ishan Kishan replacing Evin Lewis and Barinder Sran, respectively.
Playing XI
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma(captain), Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mitchell McClenaghan, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(captain/wicketkeeper), Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Harry Gurney, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna
Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik will be looking forward to leading from the front in the concluding league clash of the 12th edition.
While Rohit’s Mumbai Indians will be looking to finish in the top two, Karthik’s Kolkata Knight Riders will be keen to sign off a topsy-turvy campaign on a high.
Both captains, however, will want to make a telling contribution and get into the groove for the World Cup. Interestingly, both Rohit and Karthik have had a relatively quiet IPL with the willow.
A tally of 331 runs from 12 innings — all as opener — with just one fifty is certainly not great by Rohit’s usually high standards. What has been surprising this season is that the MI captain has been unable to convert starts.