The Mumbai Indians will travel to the Eden Gardens to play the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 56th game of the IPL. This is also the last league match of the tournament, and this match is highly irrelevant from the points table's perspective.

For starters, Mumbai Indians had already qualified for the semi-finals, two games ago. So, apart from taking confidence into the semi-finals, the result will not matter to the side. Secondly, the Kolkata Knight Riders will go into the game knowing that they have already crashed out of the tournament. However, a win here could be vital from their standings' perspective; the Knight Riders could end up anywhere between 5th to 8th based on whether they win or lose the game and the margin!

The Mumbai Indians will want to play their best side for this game. After all, with the semi-finals to be played in the next couple of days, it will not make sense for them to go with a second string team, lose the game, and in turn, lose the momentum as well. So, according to me, the side should have their best eleven that will also play the semi-finals; Tendulkar and Shikhar Dhawan to open the innings, with Jayasuriya out, and to be followed by the likes of Saurabh Tiwary, Ambati Rayadu, Duminy, Pollard, Malinga, Zaheer, Harbhajan. There are two spots to be played for, and one gets the sense that the other foreign player could be Dwayne Bravo, whereas the Indian player would be one of Murtuza Ali or a quick bowler like Dhawal Kulkarni depending how the pitch is expected to behave.

For the Kolkata Knight Riders, the captain did everything he could, but the side has just failed to respond. They will look to now try out a couple of new players waiting in the wings and give them the opportunity. For some reason, Ajantha Mendis was not tried out in the previous game, and he should make a comeback, and according to me, so should Charl Langeveldt.

Amongst the rest, there is a good chance that one of Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum could be given the axe and an Indian could be brought into the playing eleven.

However, it is not so much about changing teams around, but how the Kolkata side plays in the game. Apart from Ganguly, the aggression is missing amongst most other players, and the top-order is overly dependent on the inconsistent openers. Cannot see Kolkata win this game against the well-oiled Mumbai Indians.

Tag :- Chris Gayle   Dwayne Bravo   Kolkata Knight Riders   Mumbai Indians   Saurabh Tiwary