The five-time champions Mumbai Indians will take on two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium, Stadium on Sunday. The Rohit Sharma-led team will be delighted after winning their opening clash of the season against bleak Delhi Capitals.
On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders lost their opening game against Punjab Kings but they bounced back strongly against RCB and defending champions Gujarat Titans.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians had done well to restrict Delhi Capitals to 172 runs in their previous game. Piyush Chawla was the pick of the bowlers as he scalped three wickets and he is once again to hold the key for MI.
Furthermore, Rohit Sharma scored a fine knock of 65 runs from 45 balls and it is a huge booster for Mumbai Indians. However, their middle order will need to put their hand up to deliver the goods. Suryakumar Yadav’s form is a concern as he has scored only 16 runs in three matches so far.
MI’s ace pacer Jofra Archer had also missed the last couple of matches due to injury and his absence has weakened the bowling line-up.
KKR, meanwhile, will look to be at their best against MI. KKR’s top order will aim to deliver the goods for the team and their spinners will hold the key.
Match Prediction: Mumbai Indians will enter the contest as favorites against Kolkata Knight Riders as they will be playing in their own conditions.
KKR IPL 2023 SQUAD
Wicketkeepers: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (AFG), N. Jagadeesan, Litton Das (BAN).
Batters: Jason Roy, Nitish Rana ©, Rinku Singh, Mandeep Singh.
All-rounders: Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Andre Russel (WI), Shardul Thakur, David Wiese (NAM).
Bowlers: Lockie Ferguson (NZ), Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine (WI), Tim Southee (NZ), Varun Chakravarthy, Umesh Yadav, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Kulwant Khejroliya.
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.
