What is it with Mumbai Indians and poor starts? Once again Mumbai Indians have got off to a horrible start in the IPL. They have lost four of their last five games. Not because they have played badly, but because other teams perform much better when they are playing Mumbai Indians.
The poor run of bad results will mean Mumbai will need to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad in tonight’s clash no matter what. A loss will not do, no excuse will do. It doesn’t matter if the team plays good cricket or not, whether they were unlucky or not. They just have to win.
So far for Mumbai, their young players such as Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Mayank Markande have carried the team. The senior pros such as Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, and Hardik Pandya have done absolutely nothing of note, save a good performance here and there.
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Both Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad are champion sides who are currently struggling. Sunrisers Hyderabad had three successive wins, but since then have had a run of losses.
They are now going to be without Bhuvneshwar Kumar for this game and there are concerns over the availability of Shikhar Dhawan and Yusuf Pathan.
Their middle order batting comprising of Manish Pandey, Yusuf and Deepak Hooda has really done nothing in this IPL 2018. They depend heavily on captain Kane Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan. That has to change, the middle order has to come good.
Sunrisers will be forced into a change they don’t want to make. They will have to play overseas pro Alex Hales at the top, in place of their fast bowler Billy Stanlake if Dhawan does not recover from his injury. Stanlake has been very good, but Sunrisers need to shore up their batting.
Prediction: Not just us, but the whole of Mumbai would be shocked if the Mumbai Indians lose this match!
The Teams
Mumbai Indians: 1 Suryakumar Yadav, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Mitchell McClenaghan, 9 Mayank Markande, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Shikhar Dhawan/Ricky Bhui, 2 Kane Williamson (capt), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Shakib Al Hasan/Alex Hales, 6 Yusuf Pathan/Bipul Sharma/Sachin Baby, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Billy Stanlake, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Siddarth Kaul
Watch Mumbai Indians play Sunrisers Hyderabad tonight at 8 pm Live on Star Sports!
