Guwahati: It is that time of the year that we watch the matches in the evening and discuss them the next morning. To feed the excitement of the fans more, the first game is a high stake, the rivalry game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and the defending champions Mumbai Indians.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the team led by India skipper, will lock horns in what promises to be a titanic encounter to kick off the fourteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Mumbai Indians, aiming for another title, are again the stronger side on paper. If Rohit fails, then Quinton de Kock will certainly succeed. If both fail, Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav could scare the daylights out of the opposition. And if the top-order is blown away, then the indomitable Pandya brothers (Hardik and Krunal) will be on the rivals’ case.
Rohit’s opposite number is the national captain, who is ready to open once again. Glenn Maxwell has again been picked for a bomb and New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson has been made an overnight multi-millionaire by the franchise despite him being untested on Indian dust-bowls. Devdutt Padikkal will be in his second season with teams analysing him way more and Yuzvendra Chahal seems to have lost his mojo.
Likely XIs
Mumbai Indians 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Hardik Pandya, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 James Neesham, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Nathan Coulter-Nile/Jayant Yadav, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Mohammed Azharuddeen (wk), 6 Daniel Christian, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Navdeep Saini, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.
