Mumbai: Gujarat Titans’ on-song top three will face a stern test against Mumbai Indians’ potent bowling attack when the two teams that are favourites to reach the Indian Premier League playoffs clash here on Tuesday.
With the best Net Run Rate among all teams, third-placed MI need two wins from remaining three matches to ensure a direct spot in the final four. The five-time winners will play two of these games at home, where they have won four out of five matches.
GT, who are ranked fourth, have four matches left of which two will be at their home-ground in Ahmedabad where they too have won four out of five times. The Shubman Gill-led side essentially needs two more wins to sail into the playoffs.
The top order troika of B Sai Sudharsan (504 runs), Jos Buttler (470) and skipper Gill (465) have dominated the tournament like no other, setting up many wins for the Titans.
But the outcome of Tuesday’s contest could be determined by how they perform against arguably the best bowling attack in the competition with Trent Boult (16 wickets), Hardik Pandya (13), Jasprit Bumrah (11) and Deepak Chahar (9) ensuring tough times for opposition batters.
Ever since MI began their winning streak, which has swelled to an impressive six matches on the trot, they have not conceded a total above 200 either at home or away even once.
It is enough to ring alarm bells in the Titans’ camp, whose winning formula has largely been based on piling up heavy totals batting first.
But MI will also be wary of Titans’ impeccable record while chasing as they have won each of their three games batting second by heavy margins.
But while GT’s top three have dominated the batting charts, the others naturally have not got much time in the middle barring Sherfane Rutherford (201 runs), which means MI’s bowlers would look to strike hard and early in order to gain the upper-hand.
Only three seasons ago, Hardik led the Titans to a title win in their maiden appearance but this year, he is at the helm of Mumbai Indians’ robust revival after early blips which included a loss to GT in Ahmedabad.
Perhaps no other all-rounder in the tournament has floated through his roles and performed as admirably as Pandya (157 runs, 13 wickets), providing MI with a lot of spunk.
Rohit Sharma’s (293 runs) readiness to switch gears in the middle to build long innings and Suryakumar Yadav (475) getting into his elements are indeed the greatest worrying signs for MI’s opponent.
Ryan Rickelton (334) has banished a slow start for impressive scores of late while taking pressure off Rohit to attack first up. Will Jacks is also getting into his rhythm as an all-rounder, while Tilak Varma (239) and Naman Dhir (155) provide solidity to that batting line-up.
To their credit, Gujarat Titans’ bowlers have also done a splendid job in the absence of Kagiso Rabada, who has returned after admitting that he served a provisional suspension for recreational drug use earlier this year. It is not yet clear whether he can play the upcoming games, as the length of his suspension is still not known.
GT’s Indian bowlers have performed admirably. Led by Prasidh Krishna, who is topping charts in this IPL with 19 wickets, the attack featuring Mohammed Siraj (14) and R Sai Kishore (12) has managed to deliver for the side quite consistently.
Mumbai Indians
Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Minz (wk), Ryan Rickelton (wk), Shrijith Krishnan (wk), Bevon Jacobs, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Will Jacks, Mitchell Santner, Raj Angad Bawa, Raghu Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Trent Boult, Karn Sharma, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley, VS Penmetsa, Arjun Tendulkar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Jasprit Bumrah.
Gujarat Titans
Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Anuj Rawat (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Nishant Sidhu, Mahipal Lomror, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Arshad Khan, R Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Karim Janat, B Sai Sudharsan, Dasun Shanaka, Shahrukh Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Manav Suthar, Gerald Coetzee, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Kulwant Khejroliya, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan.