Chris Gayle won’t be a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore side to take on Mumbai India as he is flying back home to Jamaica to be with his partner for the birth of his first child. We wish Gayle all the best as birth of a child is perhaps the greatest thing that can happen to anyone.
However, he has been in such a bad form recently that his teammates would be relieved that he is getting a bit of a rest from cricket. The last time Chris Gayle played at the Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai, he made a brilliant hundred off less than 50 balls. That was against England in the World T20 Cup. That was also the last significant innings that Gayle has played. He hasn’t been able to get a run after that and his form is really quite shocking.
[table id=33 /]
But in spite of Gayle’s no show, his team has made scores of 227 and 191 in the two matches they have played so far. RCB have phenomenal batting power. Having Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle at the top of their batting line-up is like having Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo and Sergio Aguero, all in the same side. This kind of batting power is unprecedented in T20 cricket – not even international teams have such a batting top 3.
Mumbai Indians haven’t have had a great start to the IPL 2016. But then, this is something we have seen from them quite often. In 2014 they lost their first 5 matches and still made it to the playoffs. In 2015, they lost five of their first 6 opening games and still emerged as winners of the competition. There is something special about the Mumbai side, they are winners and never give up till it’s really over.
Mumbai have not been helped by injuries to two of their star overseas players – Lendl Simmons – who batted India out of the World T20 Cup and Lasith Malinga, perhaps the greatest T20 bowler of all time.
[table id=35 /]
They have had to do with stop gap measures such as elevating Hardik Pandya to number three in the batting order. Well, that hasn’t worked at all. Pandya has been a complete failure in this IPL and has in fact been overshadowed by his brother, Krunal Pandya.
Other players such as Shreyas Gopal and J Suchithhave been left out after just a single game. Parthiv Patel is a decent batsman, but not someone cut out for the highest level. Generally, the Mumbai Indians team have really struggled.
They have just two matches left in Mumbai before they shift base to Rajasthan because of a Mumbai High Court order that has banned IPL games from being played in Maharashtra because of the drought situation in the state.
Mumbai have brought in New Zealand opener Martin Guptill as a replacement for the injured Lendl Simmons. Guptill, surprisingly has never played in the IPL. He is a brilliant limited overs batsman who is capable of getting huge scores. Who can forget his double hundred in the World Cup in Australia?
The Teams
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli 2 Shane Watson 3 AB de Villiers 4 Travis Head 5 Sarfaraz Khan 6 Stuart Binny 7 David Wiese 8 Parvez Rasool 9 Harshal Patel 10 Yuzvendra Chahal 11 Varun Aaron/ S Aravind
Mumbai Indians : 1 Parthiv Patel 2 Martin Guptill 3 Ambati Rayudu 4 Rohit Sharma 5 Jos Buttler 6 Krunal Pandya 7 Hardik Pandya 8 Harbhajan Singh 9 Mitchell McClenaghan 10 Tim Southee 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Match Conditions
The Wankhade track has been known to favor batsman. It’s a flat track that has nothing whatsoever for fast bowlers. We expect to see plenty of runs tomorrow.
Watch the Mumbai Indians take on RCB in the IPL 2016 tomorrow at 8:00 pm LIVE on Sony Six!
