Middle-order blues for MI

Middle-order owes has been a concern for the defending champions Mumbia Indians, But they have a good oppertunity to overcome it, as they take on Rajasthan Royals who have not had a good beginning in this edition of the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.

Rajasthan, have a lot of issues to ponder over, particularly in the absence of key foreign players Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone and Andrew Tye.

MI are coming into the match after suffering backto-back losses, the last one being a nine-wicket defeat against Punjab Kings in Chennai and need to start the Delhi leg afresh.

The Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan have lost thrice in the tournament so far and will seek to build on the sixwicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous match.

Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma (201 runs) has got starts but hasn't played a big knock and the Mumbaikar would be itching to get one as would be his opening partner Quinton De Kock (47 runs).

But Mumbai's middle-order, which boasts of hard-hitting batsmen like Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya his elder brother Krunal Pandya along with Kieron Pollard,

have not fired in unison so far.

The middle-order can pummel any good attack into submission on any given day and Sharma would hope for their batting to click on Thursday when the action shifts to the Feroz Shah Kotla ground here.

Mumbai, however, might play Adam Milne in place of Jayant Yadav.

RR are yet to have a settled opening combination. They tried Manan Vohra and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top but both failed to convert their starts.

The dew won't be a factor on Thursday as it is an afternoon game.