Josh Philippe cricket: Why are Aaron Finch and Navdeep Saini not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs Mumbai Indians?

Aaron Finch and Navdeep Saini not playing: Royal Challengers Bangalore have made as many as three changes to their Playing XI.

During the 48th match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi, Mumbai Indians captain Kieron Pollard has won the toss and chose to field.

“We will field first. Hopefully, we will see what happens but we have to come out and play good cricket. In the last game, 190-odd was chased down, and don’t think it would change much and hopefully we can chase it down later on,” Pollard told Star Sports during the toss.

Being asked about any change to their Playing XI, Pollard made public that they will be taking the field with the same team which means that regular captain Rohit Sharma will continue to miss another match due to injury.

Why are Aaron Finch and Navdeep Saini not playing vs Mumbai Indians?

Unlike Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli confirmed that they have made as many as three changes to their XI. RCB have included wicket-keeper batsman Joshua Philippe, all-rounder Shivam Dube and pacer Dale Steyn for opening batsman Aaron Finch, all-rounder Moeen Ali and pacer Navdeep Saini.

“Pretty happy with batting first, exactly what we wanted to do. Quite a few changes tonight. Seemed pretty one-sided for the first couple of weeks and the teams in the lower half are fighting hard and it’s important for us, we have been playing some consistent cricket and we have played well together as a team and tonight we are looking to execute our plans well,” Kohli told Star Sports during the toss.

Finch, who has been below par with the bat this season, has been dropped after scoring 236 runs in 11 T20s at an average and strike rate of 21.45 and 111.84 respectively. While Ali has been benched to play a fast-bowling all-rounder due to the conditions at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Saini will miss this match after splitting the webbing of his hand in the match against Chennai Super Kings.

Philippe, the uncapped Australian batsman, was part of Royal Challengers’ starting XI in IPL 2020. However, he was soon dropped after scoring a duck in his second match against Kings XI Punjab.