Rajat Patidar, captaining Royal Challengers Bengaluru for their franchise’s opening outing in Raipur—designated as the second home venue for the season—won the toss against Mumbai Indians and elected to bowl. The game is set to be played on a black-soil surface showing cracks, and Patidar described the wicket as “good” while also noting that it appeared “pretty hard”.
RCB kept faith with the same squad that featured in their most recent match, a defeat to Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday. Tim David has been named in the starting XI, while Devdutt Padikkal has been shifted to the Impact Player bench.
Mumbai Indians, meanwhile, also made no changes to their lineup. Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side for this contest, with Hardik Pandya continuing to miss action due to back spasms. Pandya had sat out MI’s previous match versus LSG, and with Mumbai batting first in this fixture, Rohit Sharma is included in the XI. Legspinner Raghu Sharma starts among the reserves.
The stakes are high for both franchises in the context of the points table. MI sit in ninth place, and a loss would effectively end their hopes of reaching the playoffs. RCB are positioned fourth, and a win would lift them to the top of the standings, though they arrive at this match after defeats in their last two outings.
Playing XIs
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, AM Ghazanfar, Jasprit Bumrah.
Impact bench: Raghu Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Shardul Thakur, Trent Boult.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Rajat Patidar (capt), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam.
Impact bench: Devdutt Padikkal, Jordan Cox, Mangesh Yadav, Swapnil Singh, Venkatesh Iyer.
