Mumbai: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will open their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign against Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday (April 2). Both RCB and MI are battling injury issues ahead of their opening encounter of the season.
Faf du Plessis-led RCB, who reached the IPL 2022 Playoffs, will be missing the services of Australian Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell for the first game. Pacer Hazlewood will be missing for a longer period while Maxwell, who has recovered recently from a fractured leg, should be available for selection from the second match onwards.
The 32-year-old Josh Hazlewood is now rehabilitating from an Achilles issue that prevented him from taking part in the India Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The RCB pacer will consult with Cricket Australia’s medical staff before making the journey to the IPL 2033.
In another big development, Glenn Maxwell, who missed Australia’s final two ODIs against India earlier this month, is still recovering from a leg injury and is questionable to feature for RCB in the first IPL 2023 game. According to national selector George Bailey, Maxwell, who injured his leg in a terrible accident at a friend’s birthday party last November, found the transition back to ODI cricket ‘more hard than he had expected’. “It is believed that Maxwell has been putting in a lot of strength and conditioning work in the gym with RCB in an effort to be ready for their inaugural game on Sunday night against the Mumbai Indians, for whom Australian all-rounder Cameron Green is scheduled to make his IPL debut,” Bailey said.
Mumbai Indians, themselves, are dogged by injury concerns. MI spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of entire IPL 2023 while all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar is also struggling with injury and will not be available for the first match of the season, as confirmed by head coach Mark Boucher on Wednesday (March 29). However, Jofra Archer, who missed the entire IPL 2022 due to injury may be available to make his MI debut finally on Sunday.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Mumbai Indians (MI) IPL 2023 Predicted 11
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (C), Finn Allen, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), David Willey, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Reece Topley, Mohammad Siraj, Karn Sharma
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Hrithik Shokeen, Jofra Archer, Shams Mulani, Piyush Chawla/Kumar Kartikeya, Jason Behrendorff.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Mumbai Indians (MI) IPL 2023 Full Squad
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (Captain), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudesai, Karn Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, David Willey, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Sonu Yadav, Michael Bracewell
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal.
Bureau Report
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