Why is Ishan Kishan not playing today’s IPL 2021 match vs Punjab Kings?

Ishan Kishan not playing: The defending champions have made a couple of changes to their Playing XI in a bid to return to winning ways.

During the 42nd match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings in Abu Dhabi, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss and chose to field.

“We’ll look to bowl first. Just a team plan, nothing specific. It’s a good pitch to bat on, so pretty simple actually. As a team we do understand where we stand at the moment and we also understand that we haven’t played to the best of our potential.

“We know where we’ve made mistakes and hopefully we can correct it tonight. Because of where we stand at the moment, we have had to make some difficult changes which we didn’t want to do,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.

Punjab Kings Lokesh Rahul admitted for the second time in a row that he was confused to make a decision at the toss. Hence, was unaffected by being asked to bat first at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.

“I was a bit confused at the toss. Don’t mind batting first and we need to assess what a good total would be. Not much to fix, it’s important to realize that we are a team that has capitalized on good starts.

“We haven’t handled pressure really well. But when our backs are against the wall, we have done really well. We need to be a bit brave and trust our instincts. We need to trust our basics and not worry about the results,” Rahul told Star Sports at the toss.

Why is Ishan Kishan not playing vs Punjab Kings tonight?

Defending champions Mumbai, who are at the seventh position on the points table on the back of winning four and losing six including their last three matches this season, are desperate for a victory. As a result, Sharma confirmed a couple of like-for-like changes based on current form as Saurabh Tiwary and Nathan Coulter-Nile have replaced Ishan Kishan and Adam Milne in the XI.

In eight matches this season, Kishan has barely managed to score 107 runs at an unacceptable average and strike rate of 13.37 and 86.99 respectively for a batter of his potential. Milne, on the other hand, has picked three wickets at an average and economy rate of 43.66 and 9.35 in four outings this season.

Tiwary, who has already played three matches this season, has scored 104 runs at an average and strike rate of 14.86 and 116.85 respectively in 10 innings against PBKS over the years. Coulter-Nile, on the other hand, is playing his second match of IPL 2021. In four IPL matches against Kings, Coulter-Nile has picked five wickets at an average of 19.40, an economy rate of 6.40 and a strike rate of 18.

Punjab, on the other hand, have made a lone change bringing in batter Mandeep Singh for injured Mayank Agarwal.