‘Iss baar itihaas badlega’ – Fans react on Mumbai’s streak of losing every opening fixture of Indian T20 League since 2013

The most successful team in the Indian T20 League, the Mumbai-based franchise, who have won the title five times, will kick off their 2023 campaign on Sunday in Bangalore. They will return after their horrible last season where they finished at the bottom of the points table. The franchise will also hope to break an unwanted record as they have lost their all opening matches in the cash-rich league since 2013.

With five championships in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020 respectively, they still haven’t managed to break the tradition of losing their opening fixture in a new Indian T20 League season. Meanwhile, they will be facing the Bangalore-based franchise in their first match of the 16 edition of the league on Sunday, April 2.

However in this season, Mumbai will have to work hard on their bowling unit as Jasprit Bumrah‘s absence will be felt by the team, and there are also some significant difficulties with the squad’s balance. The franchise has named Sandeep Warrier as Bumrah’s replacement for this season. It’d be interesting to see if he will get straightaway a game or if they will use him as an impact player.

Rohit has trained the last two days and is 100 percent ready to go: Mark Boucher

Amid the reports of Rohit Sharma being unfit for the first match, Mumbai’s head coach Mark Boucher confirmed that he will be available on Sunday against Bangalore and he is fully fit. Boucher also talked about Jofra Archer who will be leading the bowling side in the absence of Bumrah.

“Yes, Rohit is fit. He has trained the last two days and is 100 percent ready to go. I think he didn’t feel particularly well that morning and just as a precaution, we told him to stay at home. There are a lot of photo shoots the boys have had to do. He’s not had a lot of time to himself so we thought it was better,” Boucher said at the press conference ahead of their first match.

“Jofra is good, he is 100 percent ready for tomorrow. He didn’t train today, it was an optional training session. He felt that he was ready to put the spikes on tomorrow. We are very happy with his progression since he has been with us. He’ll be playing tomorrow.”

Here’s how fans reacted: