The two biggest names of the current Indian cricket scene will clash when Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Both the teams are yet to register a win in the UAE-leg of IPL 14 and occupy the third and sixth rung of the points table respectively with 10 and eight points. 

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Kohli recently announced that he will be stepping down as India’s T20 captain post the 2021 World Cup. Rohit is being seen as his likely successor. Hence, in a way, the RCB vs MI game is about the present and future of Indian leadership. 

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Mumbai do lead the head to head against Bangalore 17-11 but they’ve looked rusty in the second leg so far. The defending champions first lost to Chennai and then were outplayed by Kolkata. Their ace bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been smacked for 76 runs in the two matches. However, with Zaheer Khan hinting at star all-rounder Hardik Pandya getting ready for the game, MI might strike the right balance. 

The Royal Challengers Bangalore on the other hand suffered a heavy defeat in the hands of Kolkata in their first game in the Middle East this season. Against Chennai, Virat Kohli and company lost by six wickets. The 2016 finalists have now lost seven consecutive games in UAE. 

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Squads:

Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat(w), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Tim David, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Daniel Christian, Dushmantha Chameera, Sachin Baby, Kyle Jamieson, Pavan Deshpande, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Suyash Prabhudessai, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep

Mumbai Indians Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Saurabh Tiwary, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare, Chris Lynn, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jayant Yadav, Roosh Kalaria, James Neesham, Hardik Pandya, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Arjun Tendulkar, Marco Jansen, Yudhvir Singh

The match starts at 7:30 PM IST.