Both Mumbai Indians' skipper Rohit Sharma and Royal Challengers Bangalore's captain Virat Kohli would like to open the IPL season with a win. (FILE)IPL 2021, MI vs RCB Dream11 Team Prediction, Playing 11 Today Match, Squad: Indian Premier League 2021 is set to kickstart on Friday, April 9 with the opening encounter between defending champions Mumbai Indians and under-achievers Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mumbai.
For Mumbai Indians, if Rohit fails, then Quinton de Kock will certainly succeed. If both fail, Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav could scare the daylights out of the opposition.
And if the top-order is blown away, then the indomitable Pandya brothers (Hardik and Krunal) will be on the rivals’ case.
On the outfield, Kieron Pollard will save those extra runs apart from the trademark big hits always expected of him and also bring in the change of pace suited for the Chennai track. Trent Boult, with his swing, and Rahul Chahar, with his googlies, will also test the batsmen.
For Virat Kohli-led RCB, Glenn Maxwell has again been picked for a bomb and New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson has been made an overnight multi-millionaire by the franchise despite him being untested on Indian dust-bowls.
Devdutt Padikkal will be in his second season with teams analysing him way more and Yuzvendra Chahal seems to have lost his mojo. Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini do not inspire the highest confidence in in white ball cricket at least despite their gutsy performances in Australia early this year.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Surya Kumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Chris Lynn, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Nathan Coulter Nile
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers, Mohammad Azharuddeen, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Washington Sundar, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Nathan Coulter Nile, Adam Milne, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Finn Allen (wk), AB de Villiers (wk), Pavan Deshpande, Washington Sundar, Daniel Sams, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Kane Richardson, Harshal Patel, Glenn Maxwell, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kyle Jamieson, Daniel Christian, Suyash Prabhudessai, K.S. Bharat
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