The Indian Premier League is entering the last fortnight of the league stage. Naturally, it’s that time of the year when terms like “business end, must-win affair, playing for pride and playing spoilsport” will be used as frequently as Travis Head’s sixes and Jasprit Bumrah’s toe-crushers.
Despite all these terms befitting the contest between Sunrisers Hyderabad – among the most aggressive outfits who can seldom afford a slip-up for making it to the Playoffs – and Mumbai Indians – on course to be awarded the wooden spoon, it will be the battle between the in form opening batter and the pick of IPL bowlers – yet again – that will be tempting for the fans to flock the Wankhede Stadium on Monday night.
Head and Abhishek Sharma – the left-handed duo – have turned the aggressive template into an ultra-aggressive mode this time around. Among the multiple occasions when the duo have set the tone for a gargantuan SRH total was the contest between these two sides in Hyderabad early on in the tournament.
So strangely was Bumrah used in that game that he bowled a solitary delivery to Head. With Mumbai Indians having only pride and reputation to play for, the fans will be hoping for another duel between the duo instead of Bumrah’s workload being managed with an eye on India’s T20 World Cup challenge.
Equally interesting could be the battle between Rohit Sharma, who was used as an Impact Player against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday night due to a stiff back, and T. Natarajan, the left-arm pacer who has found his mojo.
Teams (from)
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Harvik Desai (wk), Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Anmolpreet Singh, Glenn Phillips (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Upendra Yadav (wk), Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh, Mayank Agarwal.
Match starts 7:30pm IST.
