Jasprit Bumrah could feature as Mumbai Indians look to get their season on track

Big Picture

How boringly predictable. Chennai Super Kings are on top, Delhi Capitals have exorcised the 'Daredevils' but not the inconsistency, and those two perennial poor starters, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians, have played to their reputation by going down in their opening encounters. For Royal Challengers, that familiar feeling of here we go again lingers, and for Mumbai the loss could almost be seen as a good omen, given their history of dramatic comebacks. You may point out - correctly - that it's too early to write eulogies or prophesy a come-from-behind title win. Perhaps Royal Challengers were done in by a dreadful pitch, and Mumbai by one man's brilliance. Either way, it's time to find out if there is more to the teams than first met the eye.

In the literal sense of team combinations, that seems unlikely at this stage. There were concerns about Jasprit Bumrah's fitness after he toppled over his shoulder in the last match and did not come out to bat later, but he bowled at full tilt on the eve of the match in Bengaluru and, according to the team management, has recovered sufficiently. Mumbai will also have the services of Lasith Malinga sooner than expected, with the Sri Lankan quick joining the team tonight, but he is likely to be considered for selection only for the next match. The only concern for Mumbai might be a seemingly ageing side - they fielded five players over the age of 30 last match - but Super Kings have already shown the worth of experience in this format.

Royal Challengers, on the other hand, would be chuffed to be back home, at least as far as the pitch is concerned. Virat Kohli recently likened it to the "old", batting-friendly Bengaluru surface, albeit before going on to lose that high-scoring match against Australia. Ironically, the XI that looked a spinner short in the crushing defeat in Chennai could be the ideal combination on a traditional Chinnaswamy pitch, with a good mix of quicks and spinners, in addition to a strong batting line-up.

Likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Parthjv Patel (wk), 3 Moeen Ali, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Navdeep Saini, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Mohammed Siraj

Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ben Cutting, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Rasikh Salam, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Strategy punt

• Moeen Ali averages 27.75 and scores at a strike-rate of 148.56 as an opener. Those are his best returns in any batting position in T20s. Royal Chalengers have only tried him in that position once, against Delhi Daredevils last year. A quick swap with Virat Kohli could help Royal Challengers utilise Moeen best, besides giving the middle-order a more solid look, leaving Kohl to negotiate the tougher middle overs along with AB de Villiers.

• Krunal Pandya has had AB de Villiers' number from the first time he bowled to him in the IPL. On that occasion he had him stumped off a beauty, which dragged de Villiers' back heel out of the crease and spun away to leave Parthiv Patel to whip the bails off. If anyone thought it was a fluke, Krunal repeated the feat the next three times he bowled to de Villiers, dismissing him on all those occasions as well. Overall, his record against de Villiers is an impressive four dismissals in as many innings, while conceding 33 off 32 balls. Regardless of the situation, don't be surprised if Krunal is thrown the ball as soon as de Villiers comes out to bat.

Stats that matter

• Before losing the away match against Royal Challengers last year, Mumbai had beaten them in five successive meetings, their second-best winning streak against any opposition in the IPL, after the ongoing eight-match run against Kolkata Knight Riders.

• In completed matches, Royal Challengers are marginally better chasing than batting first at home, having won 19 out of 35 matches when they've chased as opposed to losing 24 of the 42 times they have batted first. However, RCB have never beaten Mumbai batting second at home.

• AB de Villiers needs 38 runs to become the 10th player to score 4000-plus runs in the IPL.

• Virat Kohli needs 46 runs to become the second player after Suresh Raina to score 5000-plus runs in the IPL