PBKS vs MI Preview, IPL 2021

PBKS vs MI, IPL 2021 – Fan2Play Fantasy Cricket Tips, Prediction and Playing XI

Image Credit- IPL/BCCI

Punjab Kings will play against Mumbai Indians in the 17th match of the 2021 season of the IPL and it will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on the 23rd of April, 2021. The match will commence at 7:30 PM IST and it will be telecasted on the Stars Sports. Hotstar will be streaming the game live as well.

PREVIEW

The Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI) crashed to defeat against Delhi Capitals (DC) following an inept batting performance and will look for redemption.

MI have batted first in four out of four games and seem to be setting themselves up really well. However, in each game, their middle-order has thrown away the advantage and has failed to build on the platform set by the top-order. Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav have done the bulk of the scoring so far this season. The likes of Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya have looked slightly out of sorts and have struggled on the slow Chepauk decks.

The MI bowlers have more often than not risen to the occasion and won matches for the team. However, they couldn't do so against DC and would like the batters to put up bigger scores for them to do the job.

A change of venue made no difference of the Punjab Kings (PBKS) as they crumbled to 120 allout and lost by nine wickets against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It pushed them to bottom of the points table.

The formidable batting unit hasn't hit the straps, save for Rahul and Mayank Agarwal and the bowling has been pedestrian.

'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle has not been able to boss over proceedings while his fellow West Indian Nicholas Pooran, expected to provide the big shots in the middle, has come a cropper so far.

Barring that one contribution from Deepak Hooda, the PBKS middle-order has struggled. The inclusion of Moises Henriques and Fabien Allen in the last game didn’t work either.
Deepak Hooda showed what he is capable of, but greater consistency would be needed from him if the team has to prosper.

They bet on Australian pace imports Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith to up the ante but they have proved expensive and already lost their place in the XI. Punjab may look to bring in the talented Ravi Bishnoi in place of Murugan Ashwin and fit in Chris Jordan in the XI.

Probable Playing XIs

Punjab Kings:

KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Dawid Malan/Chris Gayle, Moises Henriques, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Shahrukh Khan, Fabian Allen, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh

Mumbai Indians:

Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult.

Captaincy Picks

Rahul Chahar and KL Rahul

Match starts at 7.30 PM.