Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are the two best teams in the IPL. Not just in IPL 2019, but have been so for the last 12 seasons of the tournament.
Yes, CSK were thrown out of the IPL for 3 years because of a betting scandal that involved the management. Regardless, they remained fan favorites and their return back to the IPL in 2019 was widely celebrated.
CSK have had a perfect start to their season, winning all of their matches. They are a very confident team, led by a true leader in MS Dhoni and with many proven match winners.
Mumbai Indians have had a familiar start to their season, losing their first match, but winning their second, and then losing their third. They are poor starters, but eventually pick up and almost always end up in the playoffs.
Mumbai Indians have a very good batting line-up, but apart from Jaspreet Bumrah, their bowling lacks depth. You can’t be serious if you have a 38-year old Lasith Malinga, who is down on pace and fitness, as one of your three main fast bowlers.
They are a team that is stuck in the past. They have been too loyal to some of their older players and that is clearly hurting them. Perhaps they should play young Australian fast bowler Jason Behrendorff in place of Malinga. That looks like an obvious thing to do.
But then the young Australian might as well replace Mitchell McClenaghan, who has looked grossly unfit in this year of the IPL. Mumbai should ask themselves if they have allowed sentiments to override logic by sticking to too many older people.
The Teams
Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk)/Evin Lewis, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Yuvraj Singh/Ishan Kishan, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Mitchell McClenaghan/Jason Behrendorff, 9 Mayank Markande, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Lasith Malinga
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Imran Tahir
Prediction: We really can’t see CSK losing to Rohit Sharma’s team, they are just too good for them. Mumbai will need to play out of their skin to win this one. Easy win for CSK, and perhaps a Dhoni special.
