Football Cleats

Mumbai Indians (ninth) vs Kolkata Knight Riders(second) Hyderabad, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)

Unlike most other head-to-head clashes this IPL, Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face-off for the first time this season, and at a venue where KKR wouldn't even want to look at their record. In all these years at the IPL, KKR have recorded just the solitary win at the Wankhede against MI, which came back in 2012. Fun fact: Sunil Narine was the Player of the Match on that night, for his 4 for 15, and all eyes will be on him again, but for his swashbuckling opening knocks this time.

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.

Narine also boasts of a remarkable record against MI's opener Rohit Sharma - nine dismissals - which is the most in al T20s after Dwayne Bravo's 10 against Kieron Pollard.

Rohit, apart from getting inspired by Narine's free-spirited batting, could also take confidence from his own knock the last time he batted in Mumbai, an unbeaten century against CSK. For this game, a lot of talk will again be around Rohit against left-arm quicks, to whom he has fallen five out of nine teams this IPL with an average of just 17 in 44 balls. To be fair to Rohit, he also took on the likes of Mustafizur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, Spencer Johnson and Reece Topley without falling to them even once while smashing them at 235.71.

Can Mitchell Starc come out of his run-leaking rut and give KKR the early advantage against Rohit to break the hoodoo at Wankhede?

Mumbai Indians LLLWL (last five matches, most recent first)Kolkata Knight Riders WLWLW

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 Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 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 KKR will be without both Ranas for this game. While Harshit was suspended for one game, Nitish, who played just the opening game for KKR before injuring his hand, has returned to batting in the nets. The team management is hoping he will be "fit soon". Vaibhav Arora or Chetan Sakariya could come into the XI for Harshit.

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 and Varun Chakravarty as the frontline bowlers and pick an impact option depending on the conditions.

Probable XII: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Venkatesh Iyer, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Dushmantha Chameera/Mitchell Starc, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Vaibhav Arora, 12 Anukul Roy/Suyash Sharma

In the spotlight - Jasprit Bumrah and Venkatesh Iyer

Jasprit Bumrah has been phenomenal this IPL, not least because of the wickets he has picked but because of his hard-to-believe economy rate of 6.40 in the most high-scoring IPL ever. He has, however, struck just once in the last three games and MI will desperately fall back on him again for early strikes. It's possible oppositions have been seeing him through to attack the other bowlers, who had leaked plenty of runs, and how Bumrah beats that tactic will be interesting.

Venkatesh Iyer doesn't look like the same batter that was saw last year, when he scored 404 runs while striking at 145.84, even though he was recovering from an ankle injury. He benefited immensely from the Impact Player rule but somehow he hasn't reaped rewards this season despite the scoring rate going up across the teams and venues. He also looked scratchy early on the flattest of Eden Gardens pitches in the record game against PBKS. Another flat deck awaits, in Mumbai, and Venkatesh will hope he can improve on his strike rate of 146.66 so far this season.

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.

"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