Defending IPL champions Mumbai Indians are strongly eyeing to register their first victory in the current season after conceding a defeat from the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the inaugural match of the season. Rohit Sharma's fleet is filled with the desperate need to come back and to open its account in the current season and Mumbai Indians are all set to take on the Kolkata Knight Riders, which hopes to keep up the winning momentum.

The game, which is the fifth match of the league, will be hosted by MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai. This was the same venue where Mumbai played its first match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in which Kohli's team had eventually defeated the defending champions by two wickets. Though it was tradition for Mumbai to lose their first match in the last several seasons, it's imperative that the team must work out to fix the glitches to avoid further damages. 

The factors that Mumbai Indians can hope to defeat KKR is that the return of South Africa's Quinton de Kock and the team's dominance over the Knight Riders in the past seasons, which in a way had sowed determination to Kolkata that this time, it has to change the history and payback to Rohit Sharma's fleet. The head-to-head record is highly going in favor of Mumbai Indians, which stirred predictions that Rohit Sharma would keep the dominance. 

Both the teams had faced 27 matches each other in which Mumbai had won 21 matches and what is more significant is Mumbai's track record in the last 12 matches. In the last 12 battles between Mumbai and Kolkata, Mumbai had won 11 matches. The western city has always loved to play with its eastern rival and in particular, we can expect another episode of Hitman from Rohit Sharma as he eyes to reach 1000 runs against Kolkata. 

Rohit Sharma is 61 runs away to reach the 1000-run mark against the Knight Riders. In 27 games against them, Rohit has scored 939 runs at an average of 46.95 and a strike rate of 133, and his highest score against KKR is 109. Amid the might of Mumbai Indians, Knight Riders would have a prospect to take advantage of today's game as Mumbai Indians also known to be the slowest starters. Despite the unfriendly factors, Kolkata would put out a fierce clash in all way possible to constrain the dominance of Mumbai Indians. 

The other factor that would help KKR keep the momentum is the team's victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the opening match and Eoin Morgan's team would go forward with the same momentum. Both the teams know the path towards the championship and they would perfectly execute it without any flaws.  The real challenge for KKR would be facing Mumbai's bowling line-up which is more dangerous than Sunrisers Hyderabad as it is being powered by the pacers like Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult. 

On the front of the probable playing XI, here's how Kolkata Knight Riders may look like - Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik, Shakib Al Hasan/ Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy/ Harbhajan Singh. 

Mumbai Indians playing squad may look like -  Rohit Sharma (C), Surya Kumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Quinton De Kock, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, and Marco Jensen. According to reports, Mumbai's Chris Lynn won't be in the playing squad on Tuesday to make space for De Kock. Koltaka gets ready for the big battle with Mumbai by keeping the hope on its batting line-up. 

Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, and Dinesh Karthik fill the store of dangerous batting line -up and Knight Riders have a potential bowling line-up powered by Harbhajan Singh, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell, and all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Kolkata is all set to clash with Mumbai in Chennai on Tuesday. Will KKR change the history and constrain the dominance of the Mumbai Indians?