In some big news ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Mumbai Indians (MI), Suryakumar Yadav will take over the captaincy for the five-time champions in the absence of their prolific skipper Rohit Sharma.
The star batter revealed that Rohit had caught a stomach bug which will force him to miss the match against KKR. In his absence, Arjun Tendulkar, son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, has been handed a much-awaited IPL debut.
Coming in as a stand-in captain, Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and elected to bowl first against KKR on April 16 (Sunday) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. MI will face an uphill task against the firepower of KKR batters when the teams clash on Sunday, with both former champions looking to put their campaigns back on track.
Suryakumar Yadav has had a poor run of form with the bat this season, having scored just 16 runs in his last five matches and averaging 5.33 runs. This includes three golden ducks — two in the ODI series against Australia and one in the last match against the Delhi Capitals (DC).
While Mumbai Indians were able to break their winless streak in their last game against Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders went down fighting on Friday night against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a high-scoring contest at the Eden Gardens.
However, despite winning the previous game, the most successful IPL team, Mumbai Indians, will be under added pressure at the Wankhede Stadium, for they have not been able to harness their potential so far in IPL 2023.
With two wins and as many defeats, KKR have had their share of highs and lows and have four points as compared to Mumbai Indians who have two points and an NRR of -0.879.
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