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Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and opted to field first against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday in Dharamsala.
Bumrah will make his IPL captaincy debut for the Mumbai Indians. The full-time skipper Hardik Pandya is recovering from a back spasm injury, and the availability of the stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav is missing from the clash due to personal reasons. Punjab Kings are enduring a worrying slump, having suffered four consecutive defeats at a crucial stage of the season. After seven matches, they were comfortably sitting atop the points table and looked strong contenders for a top-two finish, but their campaign has since lost momentum. Meanwhile, the Mumbai Indians have endured a disappointing season overall. Very little has gone right for the five-time champions, with just three wins from 11 matches, leaving them languishing in ninth place on the table. "We have decided to bowl first. We saw the last game and felt that maybe with the cold weather coming down, the wicket would settle down. I didn't think that I would be a Test captain before becoming MI captain (smiles). As much as we can, we can play three games left, and we want to enjoy and maybe ruffle a few teams. Surya is not here for personal reasons, and Allah is not there as well," Bumrah said during the toss. "We would have bowled first as well. The wicket looks a bit drier. Still don't know how the pitch will play, so just being positive about it. We should stop thinking about what has gone wrong. We have to think about being in good shape and having a positive mindset. Harpreet Brar, Xavier Bartlett and Azmatullah Omarzai come in," PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer said. Teams: Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Raghu Sharma. Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Krish Bhagat, Trent Boult. Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal. Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harpreet Brar, Mitchell Owen, Vishnu Vinod, Praveen Dubey. (ANI)
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