Mumbai: Defending Champions Mumbai Indians will take on two-time winners Chennai Super Kings in the season opener of the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 on Saturday. Led by captain cool MS Dhoni, the Chennai side are making a comeback in the cash-rich league after a gap of two years.Prior to the IPL-auctions, which were held in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28, Mumbai retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya and used the right-to-match card for Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard during the auction.
Mumbai will, however, miss the services of Lasith Malinga, who will now be seen in the role of a mentor while Harbhajan Singh will be seen wearing the yellow jersey.On the other side, Chennai had retained MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, and Suresh Raina and used the right-to-match card for Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis. With Shane Watson, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Vijay, and Ambati Rayudu, the yellow brigade once agains looks a balanced side on paper. The Rohit-led side holds an edge over their arch-rivals Chennai as the blue brigade has come out victorious 13 times of the 23-times they have clashed.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians probable XI: Evin Lewis, Ishan Kishan(wk), Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Pat Cummins, Rahul Chahar, Mustafizur Rahman, Jasprit Bumrah.
Chennai Super Kings probable XI: Murali Vijay, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, MS Dhoni(c)(wk), Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir(UNI)
