IPL 2021 : MI V SRH Preview & Probable XIs

MI V SRH – HEAD TO HEAD : 16 MATCHES

MI WON : 8, SRH WON – 8

The defending champions have won one of the two matches they have played so far. They now play SRH who come into the contest having faced two successive defeats. Mumbai and Hyderabad are the two best bowling teams in the tournament and both the teams would want their batters to come into the scheme of things.

It seems that nothing has changed for the Sunrisers from the previous season. Their middle order conundrum is haunting them again. Manish Pandey though has runs under his belt, the pace at which they have come is surely a worry. The knocks of 61 (44) and 38 (39) are just plain average even if you consider the sluggish nature of the pitch at Chepauk. SRH have lost both of their matches from a commanding position due to their inability to accelerate in the middle overs and leaving too much to do towards the end. All eyes will be on the SRH’s playing XI as to whether they play Kane Williamson or not.

The dynamics of the T20 game have changed a lot and with an approach like Hyderabad’s, in the middle overs, won’t win you many matches. To add more to their misery, they face the Mumbai Indians, who turn the game towards themselves in these middle overs. The duo of Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar seems to hot to handle for the teams (ask Kolkata Knight Riders).

MI would expect a better show from their batters. They haven’t been anywhere near their best barring Suryakumar Yadav. Hard-hitting batsmen Hardik Pandya and Keiron Pollard are yet to make significant contributions from the bat and they would be raring to go.

Mumbai Indians are expected to continue with their winning combination. Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, would definitely try to get Kane Williamson in the playing XI. You surely don’t want to miss out on a player of Williamson’s caliber and on a surface that perfectly suits his game. He might come in at the expense of Bairstow. Shahbaz Nadeem is also likely to make way for Sandeep Sharma. Sandeep has got the better of MI’s skipper 4 times and kept him at bay. Warner would straightaway pitch Sandeep against Rohit.

Probable XIs :

MI : Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieran Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

SRH :  David Warner (C), Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan