Mumbai Indians fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is set to lead the team for the first time in the Indian Premier League. Bumrah shouldered the responsibility of captaincy in the absence of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav during the clash against PBKS on Thursday, May 14. While Yadav is away with family due to the birth of his daughter, while Pandya is out for a few games due to back spasms. Notably, the Indians have been officially knocked out of the playoffs race after they suffered a two-wicket loss to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a last-ball thriller.
The Punjab Kings, on the other hand, remained undefeated for eight games and led the league for most of the season. However, currently, they are going through a four-game losing skid, and desperately aiming for a win. In their most-recent game, the Shreyas Iyer-led side suffered a three-wicket upset against the Delhi Capitals. Coming back to Bumrah, this is the first time the star bowler has been handed captaincy in the Indian Premier League.
Jasprit Bumrah wins toss, opts to bowl against PBKS
Jasprit Bumrah won the toss over the Punjab Kings’ Shreyas Iyer at the HPCA Stadium on Thursday, May 14. The stand-in MI skipper opted to bowl first. Speaking during the toss, he said, "We have decided to bowl first. We saw the last game and felt maybe with the cold weather coming down the wicket will settle down. It feels good. I came here as a 19-year-old. I didn't think that I will be a Test captain before becoming MI captain (smiles). I like responsibility, this is a new challenge and I will look to have fun. As much as we can, we can three games left and we want to enjoy and maybe ruffle a few teams. Surya is not here for personal reasons and Allah is not there as well.”
Here are the playing XIs for both PBKS and MI for Thursday’s clash-
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Raghu Sharma
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
