Match details
Mumbai Indians (ninth) vs Kolkata Knight Riders(second)
Hyderabad, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)
Big picture – Can Rohit Sharma get inspired by Sunil Narine?
He could have a number of things going in his favour on Friday night – a flat deck, short boundaries, his red-hot form and confidence, good bounce that sets the ball up for big shots, and a bowling attack that, barring Jasprit Bumrah, isn’t inspiring much confidence right now.
Can Mitchell Starc come out of his run-leaking rut and give KKR the early advantage against Rohit to break the hoodoo at Wankhede?
Form guide
Mumbai Indians LLLWL (last five matches, most recent first)
Kolkata Knight Riders WLWLW
Team news and Impact Player strategy
Mumbai Indians
For a few games now, MI have been swapping Suryakumar Yadav and Nuwan Thushara and that is likely to continue.
Probable XII: 1 Ishan Kishan (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav4 Tilak Verma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Nehal Wadhera, 7 Tim David, 8 Mohammad Nabi, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Gerald Coetzee/Luke Wood, 11 Jasprit Bumrah, 12 Nuwan Thushara
Kolkata Knight Riders
Nitish Rana, who played just the opening game for KKR before injuring his hand, has returned to batting in the nets KKR are hoping he will be “fit soon”.
KKR have been bringing in Impact Players depending on oppositions, such as Suyash Sharma against RCB, Anukul Roy on a slow track opposite a right-hand heavy PBKS, or Vaibhav Arora against Rajasthan Royals. Against Mumbai at Wankhede, they will likely stick to Narine, Starc, Harshit and Varun Chakravarty as the frontline bowlers and pick a fifth depending on the conditions.
In the spotlight – Jasprit Bumrah and Venkatesh Iyer
Stats that matter
Narine has faced just nine balls from Bumrah so far for four runs and one dismissal
Pitch and conditions
Dew hasn’t been as conspicuous as it has been in Chennai, but chasing is always the favourable option in Mumbai. Twenty-six out of the 42 matches have been won batting second since IPL 2021 and seven out of 11 since IPL 2023. It’s extremely humid in Mumbai and the temperature is expected to stay around 30 degrees even around 11pm, which won’t make bowling second too much better.
Quotes
“The IPL has always been of high intensity and the wickets are good. So with the extra batter, it is dangerous for bowlers and this IPL has shows how the bowlers are under pressure. We see good bowlers go for a lot of runs. With the Impact Sub teams are playing fearlessly – first ball, last ball, doesn’t matter. The extra batter is a cushion for teams and gives batters the license to go harder.”
Being an allrounder, MI’s Romario Shepherd knows the pros and cons of the Impact Player rule
“It’s a very personal bond. It is not necessarily a coaching thing, it can be also a trust thing. Sometimes just having someone in the dugout and having that aura around you can have a positive effect on the player. Gautam Gambhir is Kolkata’s golden boy, he has come and won us two championships as captain, and Sunil Narine has been part of that journey. There’s always going to be certain memory that Sunny taps into. It’s a deeper bond that both of them have and that is reflecting in Sunny’s batting.”
KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar talks about the impact Gambhir has had on Narine’s opening form
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo