Mumbai's batting might up against Punjab's bowling smarts in Mullanpur

Punjab Kings (eighth) vs Mumbai Indians (ninth)
Mullanpur, 7:30pm IST (2pm GMT)

Punjab Kings have only one batter with more than 150 runs this season, but he's going to miss Thursday's game with a shoulder injury. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have three over 150 and those who have fewer runs are either middle and lower-order batters or haven't played enough games in IPL 2024.

Mumbai's openers have given them a kickstart: the 308 runs between Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan is the second highest for the first wicket this year; they have been separated in single-digits in only two out of six innings, and have fifty-plus partnerships (including a hundred) in the other four. Their partnership runs have come at more than 11 runs an over.

The Kings haven't had such batting riches. Their regular openers - Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow - have totalled 168 runs at only 8.33. With Dhawan injured for their previous game against Royals, Kings opened with Bairstow and Atharva Taide but there was not much improvement.

The contrast doesn't end there. Mumbai have hit 67 sixes this season, the second highest, while Kings' 44 is the second lowest. In the powerplay, Mumbai's 23 sixes and Punjab's four are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Though Mumbai's batting is performing much better than Punjab's, they are just below the Kings near the bottom of the table with four points from six games. And that may be down to the contrast between their bowling units this season.

Despite Jasprit Bumrah's genius (10 wickets at an average of 14.60 and economy of 6.08), Mumbai have one of the poorest performing attacks of the season: their collective average of 35.72 and economy of 10.04 is the third worst among the ten teams. Punjab, on the other hand, have the best bowling average (25.20) and the fourth best economy rate (8.87) this season.

Their home venue might have something to do with it. Teams have struggled to start fast in Mullanpur: the powerplay run rate of 7.11 there is the lowest this season, which means Rohit and Ishan will be challenged to give Mumbai their customary quick start on Wednesday.

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Bairstow's lean run, especially in Mullanpur where he has scores of 9, 0 and 15, could force Kings to consider playing the South African batter Rilee Rossouw. Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma have formed a potent threat with the bat lower down the order, so expect the Impact Player tactics to be the same: Ashutosh swapping in or out for Arshdeep Singh or Prabhsimran Singh.

Probable XII: 1 Atharva Taide, 2 Jonny Bairstow/Rilee Rossouw, 3 Prabhsimran Singh, 4 Sam Curran (capt), 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Shashank Singh, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Ashutosh Sharma

Along with Bumrah, Gerald Coetzee is the only MI bowler to have a sub-ten economy rate in the death overs in IPL 2024. Mumbai have been the third-most expensive side in the phase. Given they have not used a lot of spin, could they be tempted to bring in the Sri Lankan fast bowler Nuwan Thushara for offspinning allrounder Mohammad Nabi?

Probable XII: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Mohammad Nabi/ Nuwan Thushara, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Gerald Coetzee, 12 Akash Madhwal

Not only has Kagiso Rabada been among the wickets this season for Kings, he has done so at an economy under eight - the first time he has conceded less than eight an over since IPL 2020. His nine wickets include seven right-handers and Mumbai have plenty of them. Rabada has been effective in the middle overs, where he has picked up four wickets with an economy of 7.33.

Rohit Sharma has been superb for Mumbai this season. Without the burden of captaincy, he has blazed away in the powerplay and is enjoying his best start to an IPL. His tally of 261 is already the highest for him in the first six matches of a season. He has also never scored faster than his strike rate of 167.31 in IPL 2024. He has been good against pace (strike rate of 173.63) as well as spin (152.17) which has made him hard to contain for the opposition.

Teams winning the toss have opted to chase in Mullanpur, and won two out of three games this season. The one time they lost, Kings fell only two runs short against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The pitches have largely been batting-friendly, and expect the trend to continue in the evening game on Thursday.

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