Mumbai Indians (MI) will lock horns against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the 20th match of IPL 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Both teams are coming into the match following defeats in their last match, respectively, and will look to get back on track.
MI is currently placed at the bottom half of the points table following three losses in four games. The five-time champions lost their last match against LSG after being on track to register a comfortable win.
RCB, on the other hand, lost to GT in their first game at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. This was Bengaluru’s first loss of the season after winning back-to-back games against KKR and CSK, respectively.
This article provides the details of RCB’s playing 11 for their game against the Mumbai Indians on April 7.
RCB Playing 11 vs Mumbai Indians- IPL 2025, Match 20:
Openers: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli
Former captain Virat Kohli will open the innings for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Mumbai Indians along with Philip Salt. The duo, which started the tournament on a positive note, failed to deliver in the last match against GT.
English opener Philip Salt found it difficult to play a free-flowing innings on a wicket that had something in it for the bowlers and was unable to capitalize on a chance given to him by Buttler early in the innings.
Virat was also found wanting against GT and fell into the trap set by Arshad Khan to target him with short balls directed towards his body, thereby not allowing Kohli to take on the bowler by freeing his arms.
The duo would like to rectify the mistakes in the match against the Mumbai Indians and would like to replicate the aggressive approach they showed against CSK.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jeetesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya
RCB would hope for their middle order batters especially Devdutt Padikkal who has looked good but hasn’t been able to convert starts into big scores and Rajat Patidar who played a match-winning innings against CSK to bat a bit long against MI to get those extra 10-15 runs which can be crucial at the end of the game.
On the other hand, the Rajat Patidar-led side would also wish for power hitters Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, and Tim David to continue the good form they have shown in the tournament so far.
Bowlers: Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
A lot has been said about how RCB has not yet cracked the formula of defending totals at their home ground, and the inability came to haunt the team again in the last match against GT, as they failed to defend a total of 169 runs on a helpful wicket.
One of the reasons for the defeat was that the RCB bowlers were not able to build pressure from both hands, with inexperienced fast bowlers like Rasikh Dar and Yash Dayal doing away with the pressure created by Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood in the first six overs.
The spin department of RCB is being handled by experienced all-rounder Krunal Pandya and young leg spinner Suyash Sharma, who was not given an opportunity against GT on a two-paced wicket.
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