Setting aside decades of rivalry in cricket, a similar Mumbai and a fresh Delhi face each other to secure the first win of the tournament.
VIVO IPL 2018: After two close defeats Mumbai hoping to turn things around against Delhi
Both the teams are the only ones to have their local boys in the form of their skippers as they both bring the authentic nature of local cricket in their captaincy.
While Gambhir possesses the aggression of Delhi, Rohit carries with him the never-say-die attitude of Mumbai. Besides that both the captains have had their share of success in the history of the tournament.
The challenge for Gambhir is greater as he is provided with a fresh bunch of players and support staffs while Rohit is going to work with a similar set of players and plans.
Both the franchises had a successful auction and assembled a promising squad, but both the teams have failed to win the opening couple of games.
Delhi were undone by KL Rahul’s assault in the first match while a divine intervention in the second match left them an unfortunate target of 71 in 6 overs.
Delhi will hope that Rahul Tewatia’s stingy bowling form continues and Colin Munro’s issues against spin get resolved quickly.
It has been a scenario of so-near-yet-so-far for Mumbai Indians until now. They should have won the lost game against Chennai while they dragged an already lost game to the last ball against Hyderabad.
Nonetheless Mumbai line-up has played some good close encounters and should go in without any change unless Hardik Pandya recovers from his injury.
It would also be interesting to see what advice the coaches, TA Sekar and Ricky Ponting, would give their recent team against their former ones.
Venue− Wankhede, Mumbai
MI Probable XI: Evin Lewis, Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mitchell McClenaghan, Makrand Markande, Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman
DD Probable XI: Gautam Gambhir (c), Colin Munro, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Chris Morris, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult