Five-time champions Mumbai Indians' next assignment in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) is against the two-time title winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The two box-offices franchises will clash on April 16 (Sunday) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The Men in Blue are likely to take part in the match without their star overseas bowler Jofra Archer, who has already missed the last two games for the franchise with an elbow injury. Archer played the first game of the season for Mumbai, and as it stands, the right-arm pacer will remain sidelined for the game against the Knight Riders.
"At the moment Jof (Jofra Archer) is being managed by the medical team and I am not a part of those conversations. Whenever they have him ready to play he will be ready to go," Tim David told the media during pre-match conference on Saturday (April 15).
With Jasprit Bumrah sidelined for the whole season, the Men in Blue had pinned their hopes on Archer. The express pacer didn't have a good outing in the franchise's opening game of the season against the Royal Challengers Bangalore but with the kind of skillset the possess, the English pacer is an outright match-winner. Rohit Sharma and the Mumbai Indians' management would hope that Archer could recover from his injury sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, David also reflected on Rinku Singh's performance against Gujarat Titans where the left-handed batter smashed five sixes off five balls and led the Knight Riders to an improbable win. The Australian all-rounder opined that game-planning against batters like Rinku is not an easy task.
"They (KKR) have got some dangerous batsmen and (if) our bowlers get them out (early) that will be a perfect start for us," David acknowledged.
"But no, it is tough to plan, I think. We are more focussed on ourselves and we want to play a good game and we know when we play our best cricket we are going to top," the hard-hitting batter opined.
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