Upbeat Mumbai to take on Titans' might in vital Wankhede encounter

Resurgent Mumbai Indians are likely to be tested to the hilt by defending champions Gujarat Titans in what will be a vital Indian Premier League encounter at Wankhede on Friday For the first time this season the fivetime champions have looked promising as they rose to the third spot in the points table with a sixwicket thumping of Royal Challengers Bangalore on TuesdayChasing 200 inside 17 overs MIs innings showcased how successful their batting has been even though for the second consecutive game they reshuffled the order in a bid to push their net run rateAlso ReadIPL 2023 Points Table RR catapult to 3rd spot KKRrsquos playoff hopes dealt a blowDespite captain Rohit Sharmas prolonged lean patch with five singledigit scores on the trot MIs batting has been nearly unstoppable at Wankhede as they successfully chased a target of 200 or above twice in three attempts Even against Punjab Kings MI replied with 201 for 6 while chasing 215However the issue for MI this year is not restricted to Rohits form or the absence of Jasprit Bumrah or Jofra Archer but their death overs bowling which have time and again seen them conceding four consecutive totals above 200 and nearly did so versus RCB again In the last three games here opposition sides have raked up 2148 2127 and 1996 making the most of a flat wicket and perfect batting conditions something that GT would also like to targetMIs bowling did well against RCB to stop their charge in the middle overs but Gujarat are not grappling with the issue of not having inform batters lower in the order like RCBMeanwhile Suryakumars return to form is the biggest positive for MI for whom the likes of Ishan Kishan Cameron Green Tim David and Tilak Varma have done the bulk of scoring It remains to be seen if Varma is fit for the contest on Friday The contest could however depend a lot on how MIs freeflowing batters go against eight overs of spin from Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad who has thrived in the company of the senior AfghanWith eight wins in 11 matches GT are on the brink of making it to the playoffs and being the first team to do soSkipper Hardik Pandya and coach Ashish Nehra have successfully managed a conducive environment for the players who have flourished for the franchise this year as well emerging as a strong contender for the title for the second year in a rowThe highlight for GT is that they have not lost any of their away games and all three loses have so far come at their home ground in AhmedabadThe opening pair of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha poses a lot of threat and GT have a long list of batters who can up the ante in their bid to get to big totals Hardik and David Miller are firing with the bat and the dangerous Rahul Tewatias presence adds more woes for the oppositionIn fact GT are coming off a huge 56run win over Lucknow Super Giants having recorded their highestever IPL total of 227 for two With the Wankhede being a haven for batters GT would draw inspiration from their earlier meeting with MI this season While recording a comprehensive 55run win GT had piled up 2076 and kept MI to a paltry 1529Full squadsMumbai Indians Rohit Sharma c Jofra Archer Arshad Khan Jason Behrendorff Dewald Brevis Piyush Chawla Tim David Raghav Goyal Cameron Green Ishan Kishan wk Duan Jansen Chris Jordan Kumar Kartikeya Akash Madhwal Riley Meredith Shams Mulani Ramandeep Singh Sandeep Warrier Hrithik Shokeen Tristan Stubbs Arjun Tendulkar Tilak Varma Vishnu Vinod Nehal Wadhera Suryakumar YadavGujarat Titans Hardik Pandya c Shubman Gill David Miller Abhinav Manohar Sai Sudharsan Wriddhiman Saha Matthew Wade Rashid Khan Rahul Tewatia Vijay Shankar Mohammed Shami Alzarri Joseph Yash Dayal Pradeep Sangwan Darshan Nalkande Jayant Yadav R Sai Kishore Noor Ahmad Dasun Shanaka Odean Smith KS Bharat Shivam Mavi Urvil Patel Joshua Little and Mohit SharmaWith PTI inputs