Toss Gujarat Titans chose to bowl vs Mumbai Indians

At the bottom of the table, their reputation as a big team under threat, Mumbai Indians put their reputation of being the best scouts in the spotlight, handing out debuts to two players yet to play any senior Twenty20 cricket. The 22-year-old Danish Malewar is a batter from Vidarbha, 21-year-old Krish Bhagat a pace bowler from Punjab. Malewar was going to be the first one to be tested as hosts Gujarat Titans won the toss and elected to field on a black-soil pitch largely because of potential dew in Ahmedabad.

Malewar was slated to open in place of Ryan Rickelton, with Rickelton’s compatriot Quinton de Kock firmly established as MI’s No. 1 opener after a century in his first match of the season. Rohit Sharma continued to stay out with a hamstring injury.

Bhagat replaced Deepak Chahar in the XI after the veteran bowler was taken for 45 in 2.3 overs in MI’s previous match against Punjab Kings. The returning Mitchell Santner pushed out Shardul Thakur, who went for 42 in his three against PBKS.

Looking to move into the top three with a win, GT stuck with the combination that completed a hat-trick of wins. They did push Shahrukh Khan into the first XI and Rahul Tewatia into the potential Impact Players.

Mumbai Indians 1 Danish Malewar, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Naman Dhir, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt.), 6 Tilak Varma, 7 Sherfane Rutherford, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Krish Bhagat, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 AM Ghazanfar

MI bench: Raj Bawa, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Mayank Rawat, Raghu Sharma

Gujarat Titans 1 Shubman Gill (capt.), 2 B Sai Sudharsan, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Washington Sundar, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Mohammed Siraj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Ashok Sharma

GT bench: Rahul Tewatia, Jason Holder, Anuj Rawat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Manav Suthar