Kings XI Punjab vs Mumbai Indians Playing 11 IPL: Team News, players to watch out for
The Indian Premier League heads to the PCA Stadium in Mohali where Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) take on Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday. Both the teams faced contrasting fortunes in their last match as MI picked up their first win of the season against the Royal Challengers Bangalore while KXIP made a massive mistake in their comprehensive 28-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
KXIP were guilty of making an error of judgement in field placement against KKR when Andre Russell was bowled by Mohammed Shami when he was on three. The umpire deemed it as an illegal delivery after KXIP was found to have one fielder short of the mandatory four inside the 30-yard circle. Russell then went on to score a match-winning knock of 48 runs off 17 balls. In the batting department, KL Rahul and Chris Gayle also failed to fire as KXIP lost. However, Punjab would be happy to see their middle-order performing well.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians made a big score of 187 runs against RCB. Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Kieron Pollard and Suryakumar Yadav all looked in good touch. While Jasprit Bumrah put in another display of death-bowling masterclass to get MI to their first win of the season. With so many star performers in the fixture, let’s look at the 4 players who could be the difference for their teams in the match:-
1. Rohit Sharma- The MI captain is one of the most destructive batsmen in limited-overs cricket. He almost scored his first half-century of the season when he hit 48 runs off just 33 balls to get MI off to a good start. We can expect another match-winning performance from the Hitman as he continues to gather momentum ahead of the ICC World Cup.
2. Ravichandran Ashwin- The opposing captain made a crucial error against KKR. Against MI, Ashwin would look to put that in the rear mirror to get his team back in the win column. He is a lethal bowler in the T20 format and gives away less than 6 runs per over to stranglehold the opposition.
3. KL Rahul- The Karnataka batsman has started the 2019 IPL campaign on a disappointing note after scoring just 5 runs in the first two games. With the World Cup only a couple of months away, Rahul may just strike form against MI to cement his position in the Indian team.
4. Yuvraj Singh- The left-handed batsman has started his MI stint with a bang. After scoring a fifty in the first game, Yuvraj looked in his elements against RCB as he hit Yuzvendra Chahal for three consecutive sixes. This might just be his last ever IPL and Yuvi may be looking to make his good form count.
MI predicted playing 11: Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande.
KXIP predicted playing 11: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, David Miller, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammed Shami, Andrew Tye
