IPL 2021: Aakash Chopra picks his ideal playing XIs for MI vs KKR match

Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will lock horns with each other in the 34th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Both these sides experienced totally contrasting starts to their respective campaigns in the second half of the IPL.

While the Mumbai side was beaten by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) outfit in their opening match by 20 runs, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) blew away the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side by 9 wickets in their previous encounter.

And, ahead of the contest, former Indian batsman Aakash Chopra has picked his ideal playing XI for both sides on his YouTube channel. Chopra feels that the Mumbai Indians will make two changes to their playing XI from their previous match against Chennai Super Kings.

The cricketer-turned-commentator opined that regular skipper Rohit Sharma will walk back in the side and will open the batting, and will replace Anmolpreet Singh. And, the other change that Aakash Chopra has predicted is that all-rounder Hardik Pandya will replace Saurabh Tiwary in the side.

Aakash Chopra picks his KKR playing XI for their clash against MI

Aakash Chopra then picked his KKR playing XI for their battle against the Mumbai side. The 44-year-old reckoned that the Kolkata side does not need to do anything different from what they did in their previous match against Bangalore.

Chopra heaped praise on Venkatesh Iyer for the way the left-hander took the attack to the Bangalore side in KKR’s previous match. Chopra also said that Shubman Gill looks like a different player in the second half of the IPL, and played some beautiful shots against RCB.

Adding that the rest of the KKR batsmen did not get a chance in the previous match, Chopra further heaped praise on Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine for the way they bowled against Virat Kohli and his men. Adding that Kolkata played a ‘perfect match’ against RCB in their opening match of IPL Phase 2, Chopra concluded by stating that the Mumbai side has a lot of catching up to do in the tournament.

Aakash Chopra’s Predicted KKR Playing XI: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna

Aakash Chopra’s Predicted MI Playing XI: Quinton De Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult