In the third home game of the 2016 season, the Wankhede Stadium is going to witness the clash of the titans. 20th April 2016 is the day when two heavy-weights of Indian cricket go up against each other. MI has managed to secure only 2 points from 4 games, which places Rohit Sharma’s team in 6th position in the standings. Going by the IPL history a team requires a minimum of 16 points to qualify for the play-offs. With just ten games in hand MI are 7 wins away from securing a play-off spot. It will be interesting to see how Rciky Ponting and Co. turn things around against RCB and start making a mark this season.

An interesting aspect of the match will be to see how RCB’s batting matches up against MI’s bowling brigade. Mitchell McClenaghan is the second highest wicket taker in this edition of the IPL, till date, while the duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are number 6 and 7 in the top scorers’ list for this season. de Villiers also has the highest strike rate in this edition of the IPL 2016. The trio of McClenaghan, Tim Southee and Jasprit Bumrah bowling to the hard-hitting batting line up of Bangalore is a mouth-watering prospect. Chris Gayle and Shane Watson are the other two big names who are capable of taking the game away from MI. RCB’s bowling suffered a big blow due to the injury to Mitchell Starc, which kept him away from the recently concluded ICC World Twenty20 and they are left with an inexperienced bowling line up comprising of Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sreenath Aravind and David Wiese. The inexperience showed in the way they tried defending a score of 193, against DD in the last game, unsuccessfully.

MI has been looking for the right combination and batting order as none of the combinations have succeeded thus far. The injuries to Lendl Simmons and Lasith Malinga have not helped MIcase either as they are still trying to get the right balance in the team. It is time for the home team to pull up their socks and play as a unit if they have to qualify for the play-offs.