The host Mumbai Indians will be extremely worried about captain Rohit Sharma's performance with the bat and his bowling in crucial situations when they play Royal Challengers Bangalore in a mid-table IPL match on Tuesday in Mumbai. Sharma is having another dismal season at the plate with 184 runs in 10 games at a forgettable average of 18.39 and only one half-century. The top batter in the lineup must succeed for the sixth-placed Mumbai Indians to advance in the standings.
The right-arm batter's early dismissal in massive chases has only increased pressure on a relatively new batting line-up, which fortunately has performed well from MI's perspective. Sharma's role in this IPL has been to provide quick starts at the top, and at times he has also had some success.
While Sharma, one of the IPL's top run scorers, acknowledged a few games ago that consistency could be jeopardized if any batter goes out of his way to seek for runs, it has been a trend for Sharma.
Sharma scored 268 runs in 14 games during the 2017 IPL, which was also MI's worst season in terms of performance as they finished last. He averaged just over 19 runs per game.
However, MI has had players like Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, and Cameron Green consolidate in the middle while Tilak Varma and Tim David have also found their stride as finishers late in the order. This is because Sharma isn't doing well at the top of the order.
In their most recent match against Chennai Super Kings, MI attempted to relieve Sharma of some of the load by starting him at No. 3; however, no one benefited from the strategy. While an otherwise effective Green went for six at the opening slot, Sharma suffered his second consecutive duck and fourth straight single-digit score.
For the first time in 13 years, MI lost an away game against their arch rivals after scoring a pitiful 139/8 in CSK's home stadium.
The Mumbai Indians would be worried about their death over bowling as well because they have given up four consecutive totals over 200 while bowling first, two of which were recorded on the flat surfaces at the Wankhede Stadium.
However, RCB will be hoping for success from their trio of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, and Glenn Maxwell since whenever they have done so collectively, the team has generally found itself on the winning side of the results.
Mahipal Lomror scored a fine 54 against Delhi Capitals, but it wasn't enough as RCB lost shockingly, dropping them to fifth place in the standings with five victories and as many losses in ten games.
Du Plessis is the only batsman to have reached the 500-run plateau this season with 511 runs, and RCB will be hoping that their captain gets going with others in tow to a high total if they bat first.
But it's still unclear whether RCB has any other bats on hand outside the big three, who have carried the most of the load thus far in the IPL. This year, Dinesh Karthik has struggled at the plate, and RCB also lacks a powerful hitter in their lower-middle order.
With Mohammed Siraj in charge, the addition of Josh Hazlewood has given RCB's bowling, which has taken 15 wickets in 10 games thus far, a boost.
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