Punjab have flattered to deceive

April 23, 2021 19:07

Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul has won the toss and elected to field against Mumbai Indians in their IPL match, in Chennai, on Friday.

MI play an unchanged squad while Punjab make one change -- Ravi Bishnoi comes in for Murugan Ashwin.

Mumbai Indians would be aiming to address their batting woes to achieve consistency while Punjab Kings would be desperate to arrest their overall slide.

The Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai crashed to defeat against Delhi Capitals following an inept batting performance and will look for redemption. The skipper shone with the bat, but others could not get going and the misfiring middle-order would be a major concern for the side.

The Mumbai Indians bowlers have more often than not risen to the occasion and won matches for the team.

However, they couldn't do so against Delhi and would like the batters to put up bigger scores for them to do the job.

Rohit looked in good touch against Delhi. However, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, stars of the team's victorious 2020 campaign, have not been able to make match-winning contributions and that has hurt Mumbai Indians along with middling performances from Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers -- Hardik and Krunal.

Punjab have flattered to deceive after a winning start. Being shot out for 120 by Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday hinted at bigger problems for the KL Rahul-led team, which has more than one issue to resolve, especially its composition.

The formidable batting unit hasn't hit the straps, save for Rahul and Mayank Agarwal and the bowling has been pedestrian.

'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle has not been able to boss over proceedings while his fellow West Indian Nicholas Pooran, expected to provide the big shots in the middle, has come a cropper so far.

Three straight losses would have definitely dented Punjab's morale and the team needs to recover quickly or else its play-off hopes would slip fast.

Playing XI:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult.

Punjab Kings: KL Rahul(w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Moises Henriques, Shahrukh Khan, Fabian Allen, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh.

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