IPL 2019: Match 27; MI vs RR Predicted Playing XI, Preview & Key Players

Mumbai Indians are set to host the Rajasthan Royals in the first of Saturday's double-header at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Head-to-Head Overall Stats: Mumbai and Rajasthan have challenged each other in 21 games in the IPL, with MI leading the head-to-head record with 11 wins, while RR have won 9; one match ended in no result.

Head-to-Head at the Wankhede Stadium: The Royals have toured the Wankhede on six occasions and have managed to win twice.

Mumbai Indians Perspective

Mumbai Indians (Source - iplt20/BCCI)

Mumbai Indians beat KXIP in their previous encounter to register their highest successful run chase, and they would love to continue their winning run in the IPL against the struggling Royals.

Batting

Key Players - Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard & Quinton de Kock

Kieron Pollard (83 runs from 31 balls) was at his devastating best against Punjab and led his team to victory from nowhere. Pollard amassed ten sixes and fours in his explosive innings and he will expected to make a similar impact against the Royals. Meanwhile, skipper Rohit Sharma is set to mark his return after missing the last game through injury. He will be itching to score a big one tomorrow.

Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav are among the most consistent performers for MI this season, and these two are expected to play a decisive role against RR.

Bowling

Key Players - Alazarri Joseph, Jasprit Bumrah & Jason Behrendorff

Alzarri Joseph stole the headlines with his six-wicket haul against SRH on his IPL debut. But he failed to pick up any wickets against Punjab. He is expected to be back amongst the wickets against RR. Though Hardik Pandya picked two wickets, he was taken for plenty in the previous match. The all-rounder leaked 57 runs in his quota of four overs. He must rectify this against the Rajasthan Royals.

Jasprit Bumrah and Jason Behrendorff have snared six and three scalps so far and these two will be expected to pick up a few more wickets on Saturday.

Expected Playing XI

Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock (W), Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah, Jason Behrendorff, Rahul Chahar and Alzarri Joseph.

Rajasthan Royals Perspective

Rajasthan Royals (Source - iplt20/BCCI)

Rajasthan Royals are failing to convert their hard work into wins. They will head into the fixture on the back of a keenly contested game against the Chennai Super Kings. Despite being in full control, with CSK struggling at 24/4, the Royals failed to build further pressure and eventually lost the game by four wickets.

Batting

Key Players - Jos Buttler, Steve Smith & Sanju Samson

Jos Buttler and Steve Smith are leading the team's batting charts with 199 and 174 runs respectively and they will mostly depend on these two to score big against MI. The return of Sanju Sanson is a big boost for the visitors, who are currently 7th in the IPL table.

Bowling

Key Players - Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer & Shreyas Gopal

Shreyas Gopal, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer are Rajasthan's key bowlers, with the trio taking eight, six and four wickets respectively so far. Gopal and Archer have been quite economical and have leaked less than seven runs per over. Stokes, on the other hand, has an economy rate of over 11 and he will be expected to address that against Mumbai

Expected Playing XI

Ajinkya Rahane (C), Jos Buttler (W), Sanju Samson, Liam Livingstone, Ashton Turner, Rahul Tripathi, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Shreyas Gopal and Varun Aaron.