IPL 2021: Mumbai Indians to begin title defence against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai


IPL 2021: Mumbai Indians to begin title defence against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai
Mumbai Indians IPL 2020 Celebrations
Mumbai Indians

Defending champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians (MI) will begin their title defence with the first match of the 2021 edition of the tournament against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The MI franchise will once again be the favorites to win the title for a record extending sixth time because of the excellent balance and talent that they have at their disposal.

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MI breezed through to the title in the 2020 edition of the tournament in UAE by finishing top of the league stages and then going on to win the first Qualifier as well as the final against the Delhi Capitals (DC). Having made more additions to their team at the auction, they will once again fancy their chances of going on and winning the title before the mega-auction sends players on their separate ways.

New-look Royal Challengers Bangalore would want a strong start

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were among the most active teams at both the retention window of players as well as the auction as they decided to change their side a great deal before the tournament. They retained just 12 players while releasing the rest. At the auction, they made several excellent buys to strengthen their team with the most notable being those of Glenn Maxwell and Kyle Jamieson.

The match between MI and RCB will take place at Chepauk in Chennai and the stadium will be ready as it only recently hosted two test matches in the series between India and England. The match could be the perfect starter for what could turn out to be an exciting tournament.

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MI Squad: Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, and Arjun Tendulkar

RCB Squad: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, Kyle Jamieson, Glenn Maxwell, Dan Christian, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharudeen, Suyash Prabhudesai and Kona Srikar Bharat

Also Read: Here is everything you need to know about IPL 2021