IPL 2019: Why Mumbai Indians should consider playing Yuvraj Singh for the match against Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings will face off against the Mumbai Indians for the second time in IPL 2019, on Friday, April 26, in Chennai.
This will be a battle of heavyweights - not just from the perspective of history, but also in context of their performances this season. CSK are at the top of the IPL points table right now, having registered eight wins from 11 matches. MI are not too far behind, standing at the third place with six wins from 10 games.
After two defeats on the trot, CSK got back on track with a resounding win over Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier this week. Shane Watson rediscovered his form with a blistering 96 off 53 balls, sending a sigh of relief among the Chennai camp.
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians struggled against Rajasthan Royals last weekend, going down by five wickets. While the team has largely performed well this season, the batting remains a worry.
The only two consistent batsmen for MI have been Quinton de Kock at the beginning and Hardik Pandya in the death overs. De Kock has scored 378 runs from the 10 games so far, while Pandya has slammed 241 runs at a massive strike rate of 190.
The middle order needs bolstering, which is why this might be the perfect time to get Yuvraj Singh back into the playing XI replacing Suryakumar Yadav. Suryakumar's last four scores read 21 off 25 balls against SRH, 29 off 29 balls against RCB, 25 off 21 balls against SRH and 5 off 11 balls against KKR. He has clearly struggled to keep the run-scoring rate at a high enough level.
Yuvraj is likely to fare better in that regard. Moreover, he will be handier than Yadav against a spin-packed bowling line-up of CSK. The three consecutive sixes that Yuvraj hit against Yuzvendra Chahal earlier in the season showed that he can still dominate the slower bowlers if given a chance.
But will Mumbai Indians make the change? Time will tell.
Probable XI – Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock (WK), Yuvraj Singh, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Ben Cutting, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah
Players on the bench: Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Aditya Tare, Siddhedh Lad, Evin Lewis, Pankaj Jaiswal, Anukul Roy, Jayant Yadav, Mitchell McClenaghan, Barinder Sran, Rasikh Salam, Ishan Kishan, Jason Behrendorff
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