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IPL 2017: Batsmen beware, Mumbai Indians' 'toe-crusher' Lasith Malinga is back

MI's biggest weapon over the years, Malinga, has joined the squad ahead of their second IPL encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.

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Lasith Malinga and Jayawardane
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Mumbai Indians’ biggest weapon over the years, Lasith Malinga, has joined the squad ahead of their second Indian Premier League encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. After a defeat against the Rising Pune Supergiant to begin their IPL-10 campaign, Malinga’s addition might just be the impetus that could the spur the MI team into tasting their first victory of the season on Sunday night.

Malinga was away on national duty during MI’s opening game, playing against Bangladesh in a T20I series in Sri Lanka. And while MI were losing their match on Friday, Malinga was busy taking a hat-trick on the same day in the second T20I against Bangladesh.

Malinga’s return should thus be music to the ears of the MI team management as well as the fans.  “Yes, Malinga has arrived, and is available for selection,” MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene said here on Saturday. “To have Malinga gives us more options in our attack,” he added.

But MI also suffered an injury setback, losing batsman Ambati Rayudu to a groin injury during the last game against RPS, when he was stretchered off the field.

Jayawardene confirmed that the middle-order batsman will be out for at least 10 days.

“Rayudu has had a scan. He’s got a Grade 1 tear. We’ll assess him after about 7-8 days. Then he’ll start some casual rehab training. We just want to monitor him on a weekly basis and see how best we could get him back in playing condition. For now, he’s going to be out for 10 days for sure. But after that, we’ll decide,” the Sri Lankan coach said.

With Malinga coming in and Rayudu going out, there are bound to be at least a couple of changes of changes in the MI line-up from the first game. Even Harbhajan Singh, the senior statesman who was not included for the outing against RPS in Pune, could get a look-in on a Wankhede track that he loves to bowl on.   

Jayawardene said the decision to bench the senior off-spinner was a tactical one.

“Bhajji wasn’t dropped. It was just a combination thing. Tactically, we decided first game, given the opposition, that’s the way we wanted to go. Simple as that. We have a quality group of players and we need to be smart about how we use them against opposition

When you look at their line-up, they had eight right-handers in the top 10 except for (Ben) Stokes. We still had Nitish (Rana) in our line-up who could bowl. Given that it was a green wicket and that they had two leg-spinners, one of whom went for runs and just one took wickets off pretty straight balls. I think we were in the game, tactically we got it right,” Jayawardene said. 

 

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