Mumbai, March 31 (IANS): With two defeats in two matches, Mumbai Indians and their newly appointed captain Hardik Pandya were booed off the pitch in their previous encounter. And the side is currently under tremendous pressure but there are a lot of matches remaining to bounce back. The five-time winner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) face a challenging task when they take on Rajasthan Royals in their third match of the 2024 edition at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.

Having abruptly appointed Hardik Pandya as captain in place of Rohit Sharma in a decision that shocked their fans, Mumbai Indians started their IPL 2024 campaign with a six-run defeat to Gujarat Titans, whom Pandya had led to victory in 2022, and to a runner-up finish last season.

Things got worse as the Reliance Industries-owned team went down to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 31 runs in another away match and are now placed at the bottom of the 10-team points table, yet to open their account.

Besides being booed by a section of fans supposed to be supporters of the deposed skipper Rohit Sharma, some of Hardik Pandya's decisions as captain have left many experts baffled. Like opening the bowling himself against Gujarat Titans and conceding 11 and 9 runs in his first two overs -- hammered for fours off successive deliveries by Wriddhiman Saha in his second over.

In the second match against Sunrisers at Hyderabad, Hardik delayed till the 13th over bringing in Jasprit Bumrah, the most experienced and dangerous of the Mumbai Indians pacers. By the time Bumrah was pressed into action, SRH had already laid the foundation for their massive score of 277/3, the highest ever in IPL. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma broke the records for the fastest fifty for SRH while Heinrich Klaasen hammered a 34-ball 80.

In reply, Mumbai Indians mounted a brilliant chase thanks to a 34-ball 64 by Ti9lak Verma, a 13-ball 34 by Ishan Kishan and a 22-ball 42 by Tim David as they could manage only 246/5 in 20 overs and lost the match by 31 runs.

On Monday, Mumbai Indians would be looking for an improved performance on all fronts, take the bull by the horns, and put pressure on the opposition from the start. The Wankhede Stadium is their fortress and hopefully, they can get their campaign on the rails with the clash against Rajasthan Royals. With the team set to play the next three matches at home, this will be the right opportunity to bank on home conditions to recover lost ground.

Rajasthan Royals are among the three teams that have made a perfect start in IPL2024 as they have, just like Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, won their first two matches.

They started their campaign with a 20-run win against Lucknow Super Giants at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur and followed it up with a 12-run victory over Delhi Capitals at the same venue.

This is their first away match, and they will be banking on their in-form bowlers -- Sandeep Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin were the stars of their first win with their tight bowling in the death overs while Sandeep along with Avesh Khan and Impact Substitute Nandre Burger secured a 12-run win.

On the batting front, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler provided them with a decent start in the first match while skipper Sanju Samson (82 not out) started with a fifty. In the second match, Riyan Parag came up with an absolute gem of an innings, hitting an unbeaten 84 off 45 balls -- that helped the Royals reach a competitive 185/5.

Rajasthan Royals have won both their matches by defending the score but Wankhede is a stadium where the dew plays a key role.

Overall, the teams have played 28 matches with Mumbai Indians winning 15 and Rajasthan Royals claiming 12 wins. One match ended in no result.

The squads:

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler (wk), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman Powell, Abid Mushtaq, Avesh Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Singh Rathore, Nandre Burger, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tanush Kotian.