Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants take on each other in the first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 and it will be a closely fought tie, despite MS Dhoni’s franchise playing for the first time in the tournament. Mumbai Indians are the defending champions and the match will be played at the Wankhede Stadium. There was a lot of controversy before the start of the tournament about whether matches should be staged in Maharashtra. The Live Streaming of the match will be telecast on the Sony Six Network. The Live Telecast of the game will be on SonyESPN
It is going be quite a contest with MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma locking horns yet again, this time though, Mumbai Indians will be contesting with Rising Pune Supergiants, the new IPL franchise. The champions haven’t tinkered much with their lineup, which walked away to the title. There is a lot at stake for some of the Indian stars. Mumbai has proved that it can nurture cricketers for the big stage. The successes of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya stands testament to that. Kieron Pollard might have missed the West Indian bus when they won the World T20 for the second time. With the Mumbai Indians though, he is a different kettle of fish. It will be interesting to see if Jos Buttler plays in the starting XI. Also Catch: The Live Cricket Score of the match between MI and RPS here
Mumbai have some of the best names from New Zealand while Pune can say that about their Australian core. One has to wait and watch if Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh earn a place in the starting lineup. Dhoni is reunited with his old teammate, Albie Morkel. It is an important tournament for Irfan Pathan. Kevin Pietersen is one of the dangerous names across both sides. The success of RPS will depend on how Ishant Sharma and Ashoke Dinda, two bowlers who have been criticised in the past for their erratic bowling, perform.
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (c), Corey Anderson, Jasprit Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Unmukt Chand, Marchant de Lange, Shreyas Gopal, Harbhajan Singh, K Kamath, Siddhesh Lad, Mitchell McClenaghan, Lasith Malinga, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Parthiv Patel, Kieron Pollard, DS Punia, Nitish Rana, Ambati Rayudu, Jitesh Sharma, Lendl Simmons, Nathu Singh, Tim Southee, J Suchith, R Vinay Kumar, Akshay Wakhare
Rising Pune Supergiants
MS Dhoni (c), Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Murgan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Scott Boland, Deepak Chahar, Ashoke Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Peter Handscomb, Jaskaran Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Alblie Morkel, Ishwar Pandey, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Kevin Pietersen, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Steve Smith, Saurabh Tiwary, Adam Zampa