IPL 2018: Mumbai Indians' probable XI for their season opener against CSK
The defending champions Mumbai Indians will start their campaign in IPL 11 against the two-time champions Chennai Super Kings on 7th of April. It’s a much-anticipated encounter as both the teams assembled decent squads in the auction and it, in all likelihood, should be a closely fought contest. Mumbai Indians, since they are playing at home, will have a slight edge, but CSK have always been a fantastic away performer. So the hosts will have to be at the top of their game to beat the men in yellow.
It will be a headache for the Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma to pick his playing XI as he has got a number of quality players at his disposal, both domestic and international, and ignoring any of them will be difficult. But a few of them, unfortunately, will have to be on the bench for starters, while the rest will have the first bite of the cherry.
Here are the 11 players we think will form the playing XI of Mumbai Indians for their season opener:
Openers (Ishan Kishan (WK), Evin Lewis)
Ishan Kishan went for more than Rs 6 crore in the auction and it was hardly surprising. He is tipped to be an international star for India in the future and he has shown time and again in the domestic circuit that people who have rated him highly have done so for a reason. He showed the glimpses of his talent in the previous IPL playing for the Gujarat Lions and he is someone whom Mumbai would have high hopes on.
Evin Lewis needs no introduction as far as T20s are concerned. The West Indian is probably the most destructive batsman in the shortest format of the game at the moment and already has 2 hundreds to his name in international T20 cricket. If he gets going at the top of the order, there is nowhere to hide for the bowlers as he will smash everything out of the ground.