Two out-of-form teams will be involved in a clash of the bottom-placed sides when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) take on the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Mumbai on Thursday. While the former has one win, the latter is winless in six matches, and one more loss will make create a new unwanted record -- for the first team to have lost seven straight matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) without a single win from the beginning.
A loss for the five-time champions would send them eliminated from the tournament. Meanwhile, defending champions CSK, who are just one spot above MI, have faltered as a team sans a couple of instances of individual brilliance. With five losses in six games, a defeat on Thursday would also send them on the brink of elimination.
For Mumbai, the biggest concern is the form of skipper Rohit, who has only 114 runs this season. Another is the form of young batter Ishan Kishan, who has also not justified his heavy price tag of Rs 15.25 crores. Although he has two half-centuries, Kishan will need to add more to his 191 runs.
But for MI, then bowling is a far bigger concern. The Mumbai bowlers have had a torrid time and will need to back Jasprit Bumrah if they need wins under their belt.
For Chennai, the biggest positive is the return to the form of Ruturaj Gaikwad, who found his mojo with a 48-ball 73 against Gujarat Titans (GT). Robin Uthappa and Shivam Dube did shine in the team’s solitary win against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) but the duo failed against Gujarat.
Dube will have to shed his one-match wonder tag and will need to shoulder more responsibility along with Ambati Rayadu and Moeen Ali, both of whom have looked out of sorts.
Among the bowlers, except for Dwayne Bravo and spinner Maheesh Theekshana, most of them have not been up to the mark. Mukesh Choudhary has been leaking runs and Chris Jordan had a bad day at the office after leaking 58 runs against Gujarat.
With Deepak Chahar ruled out and Adam Milne yet to regain fitness, CSK will have to bank on these bowlers and expect them to come good.
Mumbai Indians Squad
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Buddhi, Ramandeep Singh, SuryakumarYadav, Tilak Verma, Tim David, Arjun Tendulkar, Basil Thampi, Hrithik Shokeen, Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat, Jofra Archer, Mayank Markande, Murugan Ashwin, Riley Meredith, Tymal Mills, Arshad Khan, Daniel Sams, Dewald Brevis, Fabian Allen, Kieron Pollard, Sanjay Yadav, Aryan Juyal and Ishan Kishan.
Chennai Super Kings squad
Ravindra Jadeja (Captain), MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayadu, Robin Uthappa, Mitchell Santner, Chris Jordan, Adam Milne, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Subranshu Senapati, K Bhagath Verma, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary.
