Upbeat Mumbai takes on resurgent Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Bolstered by Suryakumar Yadav’s return to form, Mumbai Indians will look to extend its winning streak when it faces a resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Tuesday.

Just like Hyderabad (4 points from 4 matches), Mumbai (4 points from 4 matches) heads into the contest on the back of two consecutive victories. Both teams had started the tournament in identical manner with back-to-back losses.

In the recent five-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in Mumbai on Sunday, Suryakumar snapped his wretched run of low scores with a 25-ball 43, a knock that was studded with four fours and three maximums. Opener Ishan Kishan also sizzled in the last match and the duo would hope to take the game away from SRH with their aggressive batting.

Regular captain Rohit Sharma came on as an ‘Impact Player’ at the halfway mark against Knight Riders, so it will be interesting to see if the India all-format skipper returns to the starting eleven.

Ahead of IPL 2023, Rohit, keeping in mind the international assignments ahead, had spoken about the importance of workload management for national-team regulars.

MI has found a good spin duo of veteran Piyush Chawla and youngster Hrithik Shokeen, but is yet to zero in on a settled pace attack.

Mumbai’s rival Hyderabad will be upbeat after defeating KKR by 23 runs in a high-scoring match in Kolkata. Opening batter Harry Brook announced himself with a century while skipper Aiden Markram led from the front with a fifty.

Opener Mayank Agarwal’s lean patch could be a cause for concern for SRH, which has started to live up to the hype that was created ahead of the season. Leg-spinner Mayank Markande has been the standout bowler in recent games while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik and Marco Jansen have also troubled opposition batters.