Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma
Irrespective of what the IPL 2020 trend suggests, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma has opted to bowl first at the Dubai International Stadium against Royal Challengers Bangalore. In the nine matches so far, eight times have teams opted to bowl first in IPL 2020 and only seven times have chasing team emerged winners.
"We will bowl first. The wicket looks a bit green but dry. Hopeful that it plays well under lights, that's the reason we are chasing. We'll have to play good cricket, back yourselves to do the job. The results have been in favour of team batting first, but we had a great last game and the confidence is there. Early days the middle-order hasn't got much to bat, a lot of guys haven't played a lot of cricket," Rohit explained.
Mumbai Indians have made only one change in their playing XI - an unfit Saurabh Tiwary has made way for Ishan Kishan.
"We wanted to bat first, it has worked well for the teams. It's a decent shout to defend on this ground. We're working extra hard on our catching and fielding, but the pitch has played really well. Dew hasn't come in and KXIP showed we can defend scores on this ground. I think we bowled well in the first match, last game, we didn't have the momentum going into the death overs," RCB captain Virat Kohli said.
RCB have made three changes to the playing XI - Adam Zampa and Isuru Udana will be making their RCB debut, replacing Josh Phillipe and Dale Steyn, while Gurkeerat Mann has been picked in place of Umesh Yadav.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, James Pattinson, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
RCB have so far defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opener by 10 runs before losing to Kings XI Punjab by a comprehensive margin of 97 runs. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, lost their opener, against Chennai Super Kings, but bounced back strongly to defeat their bogey team Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs.
