Can MIs batting deliver this time?
Surprisingly, it is their batting which has failed to deliver in their first two matches. They could only manage 159 in their opening encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore and it was the bowlers who kept them in the match, allowing RCB to win only on the very last ball.
In the team's second match against Kolkata Knight Riders, KKR were restricted to 142/7 after Mumbai Indians were bowled out for 152.
Pollard and the Pandyas’ are due a big ones
While the team's top order is still delivering, particularly Suryakumar Yadav, who has looked a class apart in Mumbai's both matches, it is their powerhouse which is not being able to do the job.
All three of Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya have not looked their own in the first couple of matches and the team will have to fine tune their game to the slow and spin friendly pitch of the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Room for another spinner in Chennai?
It will be a left field call but Mumbai Indians can consider bringing in Piyush Chawla or Jayant Yadav in their playing XI, especially given how effective Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar were in the team's last match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Marco Jansen was out of sorts in the match against KKR and bowled just two overs, conceding 17 runs. If Nathan Coulter-Nile has recovered from his niggle, he might replace the South African youngster in the playing XI.
SRH losing from winning positions
Sunrisers Hyderabad will be kicking themselves for the manner in which they have let their first two matches slip away from their grasp. The team has bowled first on both occasions and has found itself in winning positions while chasing, but have lost the plot midway.
This was the case in their first encounter of IPL 2021 against Kolkata Knight Riders when they lost by 10 runs after laying a good platform courtesy of the partnership between Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow.
In their next match, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the team was chasing just 150 and was well on their way to victory at 115/2 but a flurry of wickets meant that SRH could not even maintain a run rate of 7 RPO in the last few overs and let the match slip away by 6 runs.
Holder, Nadeem to stay
They brought in Jason Holder for Mohammad Nabi and Shahbaz Nadeem for Sandeep Sharma in the last match. The move worked well and Hyderabad will stick to it.
Predictions
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Match Predictions – Top Picks
Who will win? – Mumbai Indians
Most sixes? - Hardik Pandya (MI)
Here are the predicted playing XIs:
Mumbai Indians - Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Nathan Coulter-Nile/Marco Jansen, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Sunrisers Hyderabad - David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson/Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Shahbaz Nadeem