Mumbai Indians will need to stop Sai Sudharsan in the powerplay.
Sai Sudharsan has been unstoppable in the powerplay for a while now. Since 2025, he has 497 runs at an average of 71 and a strike rate of 150.60 in the first six overs. Sudharsan has been dismissed only seven times and hit a boundary every 4.12 deliveries.
That’s been a set template for the southpaw: he preserves his wicket by taking slightly minimal risk and looks to play long innings. He has still maintained a nice strike rate and managed to find the boundary regularly. Hence, Mumbai Indians (MI) will need to remove Sai Sudharsan early and break into the middle order as soon as possible.
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While Sai Sudharsan has been proficient across most lengths and ball types, the ball coming in on a straighter line troubles him at times. Since 2025, he has scored at just a 90.38 strike rate and has been dismissed once against pace on 52 inswinging or angled-in balls. Additionally, he has played 48.07% dot balls and 40.38% dot balls on such deliveries.
Among all other ball types combined, his strike rate surges to 161.06, and dot balls reduce to 34.95%. The key is to bowl straighter lines, almost into the body each time. Since 2025, the deliveries on the middle and leg-stump lines have restricted his scoring rate: 90.56 strike rate, 7.57 balls-per-boundary ratio, and 52.83% dot balls.
Notably, he hasn’t been dismissed even once, but this is a good ploy to begin with. On anything even remotely wide gets dispatched because Sai Sudharsan’s always ready and pounces on the opportunity. The pacers can start with a few fuller-length deliveries, but can look to bowl shorter lengths angling into the body.
On all middle and leg-stump deliveries, Sai has struck at just 66.66 and played around 53.33% false shots when bowled on back-of-a-length or short lengths. That’s because pull shots can put him into trouble early on. Nearly 50% of his pull shots have resulted in false shots, and he has also been dismissed once on this shot.
The lines still need to be straighter and into the body to force him to play this shot early in his innings. He can still get away with it and hit a few boundaries, but the chances of getting wickets surge massively for the bowlers. So, the plan should be to cramp him for the room immediately and shuffle lengths to keep him guessing.
Trent Boult didn’t play the previous game against Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, but he can return for this game. He has dismissed Sai Sudharsan twice in 38 balls. The batter has struck at just 113.15, and there’s always some assistance for pacers early in the innings.
Boult can bowl into the body defensively, and his left-arm angle can trouble the batter. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians can also look to start with Jasprit Bumrah from the other end. Deepak Chahar hasn’t been effective, and MI can afford to frontload Bumrah against a team with a shaky middle order.
Bumrah has dismissed Sudharsan once in 17 deliveries and has all the tools to bowl into the body at pace early in the innings. Additionally, he can also trouble Shubman Gill, who has issues with incoming deliveries early in the innings. The ace pacer has also removed the GT captain twice in all T20s.
He can move the ball into the batter and will pose a threat to both openers. So, Bumrah has to start from one end, with Boult and Chahar handling the other. For Sudharsan, all pacers should employ straighter lines, which would force him to either make a mistake or go hard on other lines, creating chances sooner or later.
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