The defending champions Mumbai Indians will kick-start IPL 2021 on April 9 when they take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the first game of the Indian Premier League. Mumbai Indians are looking to create IPL history and win three consecutive IPL trophies while RCB is looking to win their first IPL championship.
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No Home Advantage For Mumbai
Mumbai Indians has the most impressive squad in the IPL this season but will not have the advantage of playing in Mumbai as the BCCI has fixed six venues for this season and all of them are neutral venues. Mumbai Indians have been extremely dominant when playing in front of their home fans and they will not have this home advantage in 2021.
Will this impact their performance and their chances of winning the 2021 IPL? Bookmakers don’t think so as they have the Mumbai Indians as the betting favorites against RCB with odds of 1.61 while RCB have betting odds of 2.30.
The opening game of the IPL will take place in Chennai and should favour the batsmen. While most fans think that the batting department will decide who wins this game, our experts believe that it will be the bowlers who will decide which team starts their IPL season with a win.
What Mumbai Indians Must Do To Win
Will Mumbai Indians take some time to settle in or will they be ready to fire from Game 1? This is going to be an interesting question and could very well decide the fate of the game. Our cricket experts believe that if Mumbai Indians get their playing XI sorted out from Game 1, they are going to be hard to beat throughout the tournament.
Mumbai Indians are a well-balanced side but if you have to pick whether their batting or bowling department is stronger, you would have to go with the batting. If they win the toss, they should ask RCB to bat first and then look to restrict them to a total less than 165.
The Mumbai Indians need to work on getting their bowling combination right in order to keep Kohli, Devilliers and Maxwell in check. If they don’t, they could find it difficult to win.
What RCB Must Do To Win
RCB have a great side as the owners made some important buys during the IPL auction. Kohli needs to work out which four overseas players he is going to try out in the first few games of the IPL and work around them. Picking these four overseas players correct, could determine whether RCB gets off to a good start in IPL 2021 or once again has a poor start.
Our experts think that the four overseas players that must play against the Mumbai Indians are AB Devilliers, Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Jamieson and Dan Christian. RCB have a weakness in the spin department as their main bowler is Y Chahal who can be very expensive at times. RCB does not have a lot of resources in the spin department and they should have a backup plan if Chahal has a bad day.
Our Experts Predict
Mumbai Indians will want to start the 2021 IPL with a win and send a message to the rest of the competition. However, we feel that 2021 could be the year for RCB and a win over the defending champions will give them the confidence they need. We back RCB for the win in the first game.
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