Five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians will face Kolkata Knight Riders at Abu Dhabi on Thursday. While the match will include some of the best names in T20 cricket – Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah, Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan and so many more – Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya’s fitness is in focus. The two missed the team’s first game of the UAE-leg against Chennai Super Kings. In Sharma’s absence Pollard led Mumbai. 

 Mumbai Indians pacer Trent Boult, as per PTI reports, said that Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya are recovering well. “They are both recovering very well. In terms of their selection for the next game, I’m not too sure what’s going on there. But day by day, they are improving,” Boult said during a virtual press conference on the eve of their game against KKR.

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Mumbai come after losing the El Clasico against the Chennai Super Kings. On the other hand KKR registered a thumping win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore. 

For the 2014 champs, it was clever bowling changes by skipper Eoin Morgan and lethal spells by Andre Russell and Varun Chakravarthy that restricted RCB to 92 runs. Powered by openers Shubman Gill (48) and Venkatesh Iyer’s (41*) knocks, Kolkata chased the total in 10 overs. 

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However, Thursday will come with a big challenge for KKR. Mumbai have won the last 12 off the 13 matches played between the two sides. Rohit Sharma and company lead the head to head 22-6. 

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan(c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Harbhajan Singh, Tim Southee, Shakib Al Hasan, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sheldon Jackson, Sandeep Warrier, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Vaibhav Arora

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Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn, Mohsin Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neeshan, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen, Arjun Tendulkar.