The El-Classico of the IPL between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings will be played at the iconic Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday. The die-hard fans always wait for this blockbuster clash of the titans and the two most successful teams in the history of the tournament will want to bag a win.
Mumbai had a poor start to their campaign as they could not get going with the bat in their opening match against RCB. MI’s top-order could not make any substantial contribution and if not for the fighting knock from Tilak Varma, the Rohit Sharma-led won’t have reached anywhere close to the 171 they managed.
Ergo, the five-time champions will want to come up with a collective show with the bat and they will want their top order to fire at all cylinders.
On the other hand, the fast bowling unit of Chennai Super Kings has been their Achilles Heel so far. The inexperience in the young battery is palpable and they will need to control extras, which could be criminal in a format like T20.
However, their batting unit, especially Ruturaj Gaikwad and the spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, and Mitchell Santner have done a decent job for the MS Dhoni-led team.
Match Prediction: It is always tough to choose between these two teams but Mumbai Indians might start as favorites against Chennai Super Kings because of home advantage.
MI Squad for IPL 2023:
Wicketkeepers: Ishan Kishan, Tristan Stubbs (SA), Vishnu Vinod.
Batters: Rohit Sharma, Tim David (AUS), Ramandeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Dewald Brevis (SA).
All-rounders: Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Duan Jansen (SA), Cameron Green (AUS).
Bowlers: Jofra Archer (ENG), Arshad Khan, Jason Behrendorff (AUS), Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Raghav Goyal, Piyush Chawla.
CSK IPL 2023 Squad:
Wicketkeepers: MS Dhoni, Devon Conway (NZ).
Batters: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Ajinkya Rahane.
All-rounders: Moeen Ali (ENG), Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwaine Pretorius (SA), Mitchell Santner (NZ), Ben Stokes (ENG), Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Varma, Nishant Sindhu.
Bowlers: Sisanda Magala, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana (SL), Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana (SL).
