Two teams with flailing fortunes so far in the 2018 edition of the IPL will meet when Mumbai Indians take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede stadium on Tuesday.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians have suffered a horrific start to the tournament after losing all three of their matches so far. What will gripe the Rohit Sharma-led unit even more is that two of those defeats have come in their own backyard.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers have had a topsy-turvy start to their campaign once again. After a loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, the franchise had turned things around with a victory over Kings XI Punjab at home. All that good work was undone as they fell to a 19-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.
TALKING POINTS
MUMBAI INDIANS MISSING THE FINAL PUSH
The three defeats Mumbai have suffered this season have all been mighty close ones. Rohit Sharma’s men are making a habit of taking all their matches down to the wire but have missed that final push to turn defeat to victory.
They lost the tournament opener to Chennai Super Kings in the penultimate ball after some heroics from Dwayne Bravo. The franchise then fell to defeats on the final ball against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils. To lose all three matches by a whisker will have hurt the defending champions badly.
LIKELY LINE-UPS
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Keiron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Markande, Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman, Adam Milne.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock (wk), Virat Kohi (C), AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Chris Woakes, Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.
