Mumbai Indians will seek their maiden win of the season when they will face Punjab Kings in the 23rd match of the ongoing Indian Premier League at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Wednesday.
Punjab Kings have won two matches out of their four games and they will look to come up with a collective effort against the five-time champions.
In fact, the Mayank Agarwal-led team was stunned by Rahul Tewatia, who went on to score two sixes off the last two balls against Odean Smith. Punjab would have been disappointed as they had the match in their grasp but found themselves on the wrong side of the result.
Liam Livingstone is doing a fine job for PBKS in the middle order as he is batting at the top of his game. However, PBKS will want more from their skipper Mayank Agarwal, who is yet to get a decent score. Furthermore, Shikhar Dhawan has been getting off to starts but he is yet to convert them into big scores.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians have been struggling to get going. The five-time champions have lost all of their four matches and they will need to quickly turn the tables. The Rohit Sharma-led team isn’t coming up with collective efforts with both bat and ball. Suryakumar Yadav has been fantastic for MI whereas they seemed to be over-reliant on Jasprit Bumrah with the ball.
Rohit Sharma needs to lead from the front and get a big score for his team at the top of the order.
Match Prediction: Given the current form of both these teams, Punjab Kings will enter the contest as favorites.
MI Probable Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Tim David, Kieron Pollard, Daniel Sams, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Basil Thampi, Tymal Mills.
PBKS Probable Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa (WK), Liam Livingstone, Raj Bawa, Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Sandeep Sharma.
