Indians look for winning start at home
Mumbai Indians will be hoping to start their campaign with a win against Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
The Indians have one of the strongest line-ups in the tournament with Sachin Tendulkar leading the pact but they have failed to make it past the league stage in the first two editions. Injuries have hampered their performance over previous seasons but another factor has been their inability to finish off close games. That could all change this season with a lot of the Mumbai players going into IPL 3 on a good run of form. Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya are likely to continue as the opening pair. JP Duminy will lead the middle order as Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard are slated to miss the opener due to an on-going series against Zimbabwe. Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga could make a lethal pace combination with Harbhajan Singh taking on spin duties.
Their opponents and winners of the first edition in India, Rajasthan Royals will be high on confidence with the tournament returning to India as they depend heavily on some of the local talent to contribute in a big way. Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Munaf Patel, Naman Ojha, Kamran Khan and Siddharth Trivedi have made significant contributions to their success as a team. Shane Warne will be hoping to lead them to more success with a lot of experienced internationals in their ranks. Graeme Smith, Shane Watson and Shaun Tait have been in good form leading up to the tournament and will be looking to impress. There will also be a lot of expectations from newcomers Damien Martyn and Michael Lumb. They will be without the services of Ravindra Jadeja, who was banned for the entire season after he apparently tried to negotiate his own price after his contract ended.
Subscribe to RSS
