Can Royal Challengers Bengaluru reignite their batting prowess against Mumbai Indians, snap a losing streak and solidify their play-off chances?
Key Points
- Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) aims to break their losing streak against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL.
- RCB's batting lineup, including Jacob Bethell and Jitesh Sharma, needs to improve their performance to support Virat Kohli.
- Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma recently returned from injury with a strong performance, posing a threat to RCB's bowlers.
- Hardik Pandya's fitness is uncertain for Mumbai Indians, potentially impacting their team composition.
- The Raipur pitch is an unknown factor, requiring RCB's batters to perform at their best.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru will want their batting group to rebuild its muscle to snap a two-match losing streak, and put their IPL campaign back on track when they face Mumbai Indians in Raipur on Sunday.
The Royal Challengers were off to an early season flier, winning four out of their first matches and the play-off entry appeared a mere formality.
Now, the situation has changed. The title holders lost three of their last five matches to slip into a little mid-tournament crisis.
RCB, currently third on the table with 12 points from 10 matches, are still in prime position to enter the knock-out stage.
But the Bengaluru outfit will certainly be aware that they have lost a bit of steam towards the business end of the tournament.
RCB are tied with Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans on 12 points, and either RR or GT will go ahead them after their Saturday's match at Jaipur, pushing the Bengalurueans down to fourth.
RCB's Batting Woes and Key Players
That points table scenario in itself is slightly worrying, but apart from that external factor, RCB will need the batting group regaining its range.
On a tad tacky Ahmedabad pitch against the Titans , the RCB batters failed to go beyond 155 and even the 9-run DLS margin defeat against Lucknow Super Giants was not as close as the margin suggests.
RCB required 19 runs in the final over to cross the line, but could not come close to that.
Now, RCB batters are up against an even more potent, at least on paper, Mumbai attack that consists of Jasprit Bumrah, Corbin Bosch, AM Ghazanfar and Will Jacks.
Raipur is the designated home venue of RCB, and pitch is a bit of an unknown commodity. The champions will need their batters to be at their very best on the weekend.
Faltering Bethell and Sharma
In that context, RCB would dearly welcome some runs from Jacob Bethell, who came in for an injured Phil Salt.
But his four outings so far have produced 14, 20, 5 and 4, robbing power from RCB's opening combination, and it has left Virat Kohli to do all the heavy lifting.
Equally discomforting is the diminished returns from wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, as his highest score this season is 23.
It has dented RCB's late charge to a certain extent, and he needs to buck the trend at the earliest.
Mumbai Indians' Resurgence
While RCB batting has its own niggles, the MI line-up showed glimpses of a glorious past, successfully chasing down 228 against LSG in the recent match.
Rohit Sharma marked his return from an injury lay-off with a blistering 84 off 44 balls, and the victory gave them a temporary relief after a slew of defeats.
Rohit and his opening companion Ryan Rickelton will have to negate the potent RCB new ball pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood.
Hardik Pandya missed the match against Lucknow with back spasms, and Suryakumar Yadav stepped in as captain.
Pandya has travelled to Raipur, but his fitness will be monitored closely before taking a final call on his availability for this match.
Head To Head
RCB and MI have met 37 times.
RCB won 15 of those meetings, including one Super Over
MI won 21
No result: 1
RCB Highest Score: 235 for 1 in 2015
MI Highest Score: 213 for 6 in 2018
Recent Result
April 12, 2026: RCB won by 18 runs at Wankhede Stadium.
Match Info
May 10, 7.30 pm IST: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Mumbai Indians, Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium, New Raipur.
Where to watch: The match will be broadcast live on Star Sports channels; JioHotstar will stream the match in multiple languages.
Predicted XIs
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma (Wicketkeeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood.
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (captain), Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult.
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