Mumbai, April 1 (IANS): Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bowl first against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Match 14 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Monday.
Samson said they are confident about their game after winning two matches. Rajasthan Royals made one change in the squad, bringing in Nandre Burger for Sandeep Sharma, who is not 100 percent fit.
"This is the first game here, hope the seamers will use the conditions upfront. Confident from the wins but the tournament has not yet started so we need to keep going. Sandeep misses out, he's not 100% fit. Burger in the XI," said Samson.
Hardik said he too wanted to bowl first. "Good toss to lose, we'll see what we can put up," he said.
Asked about it being Mumbai's 250th game in IPL, Pandya said they were quite lucky to be part of it.
"This franchise holds a lot of value and a lot of love from the fans, exciting to be very honest. We are quite lucky to be part of the 250th game. A slow start doesn't bother us. We hope to have clarity and keep the mood happy and light. This group is all about that. Looking forward to playing a brand of cricket everyone enjoys and get those two points," said Hardik after the toss.
This is Mumbai Indians' 250th game in IPL and the first home game of the season after they lost their first two away matches to Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad. This is the first away match for Rajasthan Royals after they defeated Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Mumbai Indians enjoy a slight edge when it comes to the head-to-head series between the two teams. They have won 15 out of the 28 matches played between them while Rajasthan Royals have bagged 12 wins -- one match was abandoned without any result.
Playing XIs:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Tim David, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jasprit Bumrah, Kwena Maphaka
Impact subs: Nehal Wadhera, Shams Mulani, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Dewald Brevis
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c, wk), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Impact Subs: Kuldeep Sen, Shubham Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Rovman Powell, Abid Mushtaq