New Delhi: Match 31 of IPL 2021 between the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) and the Mumbai Indians (MI) is scheduled to be held, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday. The match between KKR and RCB, which was scheduled to be held on Monday, was postponed after two players of the Kolkata club tested positive for COVID-19. With two members of the CSK team also testing positive, there were calls from various sectors to cancel the tournament. However, the BCCI stated that the tournament would continue.
Orange Army that is struggling to get its act together and a side that is in sensational form will clash against each other on Tuesday. SRH has managed to win just a single match out of the 7 games that they have played so far, and are sitting at the last place in the points table. The SRH management received a lot of criticism from furious fans after David Warner was sacked as skipper and benched for their game against Rajasthan Royals. The change in captaincy didn't work any for Hyderabad as they crumbled to a 55-run defeat against Sanju Samson side.
There are multiple problems SRH will try to resolve before taking the ground on Tuesday. SRH do consists of top-heavy guns including Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey but there have been no big match-defining knocks by any of them. Now, it will be interesting to see whether the team management will bring in David Warner on Tuesday against mighty MI. Apart from top 3 batsman, the middle order consisting of Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav and Abdul Samad looks non-existent.
SRH which was known for their fierce bowling has failed to impress in IPL 2021. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been the biggest disappointment for the club with just 3 wickets in 5 matches. Apart from Rashid Khan, none of the bowlers look impressive who can scalp big wickets. It’s a do or die for SRH, the club need to assess the conditions better and apply themselves in the remaining season.
On the other side, confident Mumbai Indians come in this game after their power-hitter Kieron Pollard played a crucial knock of 87 in 34 balls which led the win for Paltans against Chennai Super Kings. MI have four wins from seven IPL 2021 games and will look to continue to keep the form.
MI openers Rohit Sharma and Quinton De Kock would be itching to give the five-time champions strong start. Mumbai’s hard-hitting middle-order has clicked in the last two games, which would be quite pleasing for the management.
Talking about the bowling, the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah (6 wickets) and Trent Boult (8 wickets) have been stellar at the death overs and would pose a big threat to the SRH batting unit, which has been varying at best. Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (11 wickets) has been the MI's prime wicket-taker, but he would need support from Krunal Pandya, who has just three scalps. The spinners would need to keep things tight to contain the SRH batters. Pollard, also picked up two important wickets in the last game and can fill in the role of fifth or sixth bowler. Though, Jasprit Bumrah has not been in his original form, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya are in pretty decent form.
Though, Mumbai is clear favourite in this game, SRH may surprise them on batting friendly track in Delhi.
PROBABLE XI
SRH: Manish Pandey, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Nabi, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed
MI: Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, James Neesham, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
