RCB have lost their first match, so have Mumbai Indians. So nothing really has changed there. These are the two perennial underperformers at the start of every IPL. But they generally pick up.
Mumbai Indians have in the past lost their first 5 or 6 games and have still gone on to win the IPL. That’s the sort of team they are. But at least, they have won the IPL thrice.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, to their credit, discredit rather, have never won the IPL. But they have almost always been in the top-4. So this is a match between two very good teams, one led by the Indian captain and the other by the Indian vice captain – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Virat and Rohit are two of the most destructive batsmen you will see anywhere. But neither can win the IPL by themselves. You need a good team to win the IPL. Just having two or three great players is not enough.
The Royal Challengers have a very good batting line-up. Any side that has Virat and AB de Villiers has to present a serious threat to any bowling attack. They now have a decent mix of fast bowlers and spinners as well.
Mumbai Indians are a more balanced team with three very good all-rounders in Hardik Pandya, his brother Krunal Pandya, and Ben Cutting. And they have Jasprit Bumrah, of course – the world’s best fast bowler.
Indeed, we can’t wait for the battle between the world’s best batsman and best fast bowler – Virat vs. Bumrah. Stay tuned, the match is at 8 pm India time.
The Teams
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Moeen Ali, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Navdeep Saini, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ben Cutting, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Rasikh Salam, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Prediction: Expect a high scoring match. RCB could just win this one if Virat and ABD put up a show.
