Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will take on the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 9. RCB will look to get back to winning ways after a comprehensive defeat at the hands of DC in their last game in Delhi. After playing six of their first eight games at home, this will be RCB’s third consecutive away game and the next two games are away from Bangalore as well before they finish their campaign at home against the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT).
RCB have won five and lost five of their ten games so far. They dominated MI in their opening game of the season. KKR handed them their first loss of the season as RCB were comfortably second-best in Kolkata. LSG then beat RCB in a final ball thriller in Bangalore. RCB then beat DC in Bangalore before CSK defeated them in another thrilling finish at the Chinnaswamy. RCB got back to winning ways as they beat PBKS in Mohali. RCB made it two wins in a row as they beat RR by 7 runs in Bengaluru. Then RCB beat LSG in a hotly contested game in Lucknow. But last time out in Delhi, RCB were comfortably second best as the bowlers were smashed all over the park as DC chased down the 182-run target with 20 balls to spare.
RCB have been heavily reliant on their top three to do the heavy lifting in the batting department this season. Du Plessis is the top run-scorer this season with 511 runs and has already scored five fifty-plus scores this season. Kohli has scored 419 runs with six half-centuries this season. Maxwell has chipped in with 262 runs in the ten games so far. The top three have been in great form this season and RCB would be thankful for it as without them they would probably be one of the worst batting sides in the league.
Finally, in the game against DC someone else made a notable contribution as Mahipal Lomror scored his maiden IPL half-century to power RCB to 181. But the bowlers were sub-par and will be expected to do much better against MI to help RCB get back to winning ways.
Siraj has been magnificent so far this season and has picked up 15 wickets at an economy of seven this season. Harshal Patel and Wayne Parnell have picked up 12 and 6 wickets respectively. Karn Sharma, Wanindu Hasaranga and Vijaykumar Vyshak have also chipped in with 21 wickets between them so far. Hazlewood has also chipped in with three wickets ever since returning from injury.
RCB’s predicted XI vs MI:
Openers: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli.
Middle order: Dinesh Karthik (wk), Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror.
All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga.
Bowlers: Josh Hazlewood, Harshal Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Karn Sharma.
Impact Player: RCB will use one among Kedar Jadhav, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suyash Prabhudessai as their Impact Player subs depending on whether they bat first or second.
