Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals, 20th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Build up

Hello, welcome to the live blog for today's interesting fixture featuring the ever-improving Mumbai Indians and the stuttering Rajasthan Royals. Not only have MI looked impressive ever since that defeat to Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener, they have been constantly improving and became the first team to keep a side to a total that's below 200 in Sharjah. A squad that already looks strong on paper just keeps improving with each passing game as Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya showed on Sunday by contributing significantly with the bat for the first time this season. They have made only one change to their XI so far and that tells you everything you need to know.

On the other side, you have Royals who have been brought back down to earth after two high-flying performances in Sharjah. Adapting to the other venues has been a problem and their focus should be on that batting order more than anything. The idea of Steve Smith, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson - their three best batters - batting right at the top is quite risky especially when you have a middle order that's weak on paper. They found it the hard way against Royal Challengers Bangalore and you would expect them to address the concern. The simple solution? Push Smith down the order to number 4 especially when you are up against a bowling attack that's extremely strong. Good news for them is that Ben Stokes has indeed arrived in UAE to bolster the squad but he is in self quarantine at the moment and will not feature tonight.

Jos Buttler hasn't been at his usual best so far and if he clicks, Royals can breathe easy. Buttler has managed to get starts so far but somehow they haven't been converted into something substantial. Can he make up for that tonight? Will Yashasvi Jaiswal return to the XI? And how about Jaydev Unadkat? He has picked up one wicket in four games so far and how long will that think tank persist with him especially when the U19 World Cup star Karthik Tyagi is waiting for his turn? We will soon find out.