On April 25, the Mumbai Indians (MI) will face the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) in the IPL 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. After a three-game winning streak, the Rohit Sharma-led team was defeated by PBKS in Mumbai. Arjun Tendulkar had bowled well before the PBKS game, but he gave up 48 runs in three overs against them, including a 31-run over.
MI has won three and lost three of their six games so far this season. MI lost their first two games to RCB and CSK, but then won three straight against DC, KKR, and SRH. Mumbai Indians lost their last game to Punjab, falling 13 runs short of a 215-run target at Wankhede Stadium.
Cameron Green and Suryakumar Yadav both scored half-centuries, but MI was unable to chase the 215-run target set by the PBKS batters, as the MI bowlers were hit all over the park as PBKS amassed 96 runs in the final five overs.
Tilak Varma currently leads the team in scoring with 217 runs. Ishan Kishan has 170 runs and skipper Rohit Sharma has 179 runs in six games. Cameroon Green has 166 runs after scoring 50 or more in the previous two games. SKY has also scored 123 runs after his half-century against PBKS.
Jofra Archer returned to the team after being injured, but he was costly against PBKS. Except for Piyush Chawla and Hrithik Shokeen, all of the bowlers were expensive. This season, Jason Behrendorff and Riley Meredith have performed admirably. So far, the two have picked up a total of 12 wickets.
So far this season, Piyush Chawla has been MI’s surprise package. With 9 wickets so far, the veteran spinner leads the team in wickets. Cameron Green has also contributed 5 wickets. Hrithik Shokeen has also contributed a couple of scalps. Arshad Khan or Sandeep Warrier could replace him in the starting lineup.
Impact players for MI against GT could include Nehal Wadhera, Arjun Tendulkar, or Sandeep Warrier. MI’s batters have finally begun to deliver, but they will need their bowlers to support the batsmen if they are to make the playoffs, as the halfway point of the tournament approaches, MI appears to be one of the league’s weaker sides, alongside KKR, SRH, and DC.
