'Not necessary to play four overseas players' - Aakash Chopra suggests MI to play only three foreign players against SRH

Speaking on his YouTube channel, cricket expert Aakash Chopra has suggested the changes that both Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad should make in their teams before they face off in the 9th encounter of the Indian Premier League.

In the tournament opener, Mumbai Indians went ahead with four overseas players in Chris Lynn, Kieron Pollard, Trent Boult, and Marco Jansen, while making only one change in their second game against Kolkata Knight Riders, they brought Quinton de Kock in for Lynn.

Ahead of MI’s third game of the season, Chopra feels that they should include leg-spinner, Piyush Chawla, in place of pacer Jansen.

It is not necessary to play four overseas players: Aakash Chopra

If Mumbai goes by Chopra’s advice, they will be fielding with only three overseas players, in contrast to the limit of four. Although, the former KKR player said “Mumbai do not have much scope of changes. But they should make Marco Jansen sit out. They can play Piyush Chawla instead of him. It is not necessary to play four overseas. That is the maximum you can play, not the minimum.”

“So you can play Piyush Chawla or Jayant Yadav. You have two good spin-bowling options and only spin works on this pitch. If you get a few overs from Hardik, it’s good, if not you can get Pollard to bowl. Boult and Bumrah, two fast bowlers on that surface I think are going to be enough”, said Chopra, expecting spinners to rule the roost on the Chepauk surface.

Giving suggestions for the changes that Hyderabad can make, he said “SRH should play Mujeeb because the opposition team has an explosive batting lineup. So if Mujeeb and Rashid both are there, Mujeeb can bowl 4 overs in the first ten and Rashid in the latter ten.”

“Along with Bhuvi and Natarajan, it makes it four bowlers. For the fifth and sixth bowler, you have Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, and Vijay Shankar. You can also play Kedar Jadhav for Vijay Shankar, he will also be able to bowl one or two overs. So you can play Abhishek Sharma for Saha and definitely Mujeeb for Holder. You should use Samad and Abhishek Sharma as bowlers” he added.