Suryakumar Yadav To Continue As IMPACT Player, 2 Players OUT! Mumbai Indians Likely Playing XI vs Punjab Kings

Mumbai Indians will take on Punjab Kings at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Stadium in Mullanpur Chandigarh on Wednesday. MI have blown hot and cold in IPL 2024 so far. The Hardik Pandya-led side started the tournament with three defeats before they bounced back to win the following two games to DC and RCB. The team then suffered a defeat to CSK in the previous game.

MI have lost four out of the six games and need a few back-to-back wins to get their campaign back on track. The off-field controversy regarding the Rohit Sharma-Hardik Pandya captaincy switch seems to be hurting the team in IPL 2024. The team needs to regroup and focus on cricket as they are not short on quality thus it's only about executing the plans properly and results will automatically fall in place.

Mumbai Indians face a desperate situation against PBKS. Shreyas Gopal hasn't done much for MI thus the team might look to drop him from the playing XI. MI might once again have to fall back on the experience of Piyush Chawla, who was dropped from the playing XI after a not-so-impressive start to IPL 2024 which saw him bag just two wickets in four games. Also, Mohammad Nabi hasn't contributed much either so MI can think about getting Nuwan Tushara in his place against PBKS.

Suryakumar Yadav has played as an impact player so far in the tournament and he should continue doing so as MI don't want to risk him ahead of the T20 World Cup Notably, Surya made a return to cricket after undergoing surgery for a Sports hernia.

Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya's form has not been great this season. The MI captain has been massively booed by home fans for taking up the leadership role from Rohit Sharma, however, Pandya's teammate Shreyas Gopal revealed that the outrage has had little to no effect on the skipper.

"I can tell you over 10 years of experience, or 10 years of friendship with him, he's really tough. And something like this is only going to motivate him. The way he's taking it so far has been tremendous and very inspiring for a lot of us. Seeing it on a daily basis is obviously not easy, but the guy is really, really strong and he's one of the toughest human beings going around in the world, and kudos to him for that. He's not let anything affect him personally," - Shreyas Gopal said.

Mumbai Indians Predicted Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Nuwan Tushara, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Madhwal [Impact sub: Suryakumar Yadav]