Excitement is in the air as Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai is set to start their Indian T20 series campaign against Shane Warne's Jaipur.

Both the teams had a disappointing season last year, so they would be more than keen to get off to a winning start.

Jaipur will miss some of its key players. Ravindra Jadeja would be a notable absentee. Jadeja has been slapped with a one-year ban by the Indian T20 Series Governing Council for breaching the player code of conduct.

Besides him, Jaipur will also feel the absence of South Africa's Johan Botha and Australia's Shane Watson and Adam Voges for the first match.

But South Africa captain Graeme Smith, Damien Martyn, Yusuf Pathan, Dmitri Mascarenhas and Swapnil Asnodkar will make up for the strong batting line-up.

The bowling department that consists of South African Morne Morkel, India's Munaf Patel, Kamran Khan and Siddharth Trivedi, has also been given a boost with the addition of the Aussie speedster Shaun Tait. Captain Shane Warne will lead the spin attack.

Meanwhile, Mumbai's batting will revolve around captain Sachin Tendulkar. the Master Blaster, who recently became the first batsman in the history of one-day cricket to hit a double century.

All eyes, though, will be on the new recruit Kieron Pollard, who was brought for a whopping USD 750,000 for the third edition of the Indian T20 Series. He along with another West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo will prove vital to Mumbai's chances.

The pace bowling will be spearheaded by Zaheer Khan. Sri Lankan pacers Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando will give him company.

Harbhajan Singh would lead the spin attack but other than him there isn't any regular slow bowler to support him. So Mumbai will have to depend on Sanath Jayasuriya's slow left arm bowling.

Mumbai vs Rajasthan - Head to Head
 
Played: 3

Won by Mumbai: 1

Won by Rajasthan: 2

Winning % Mumbai: 33.33

Winning % Rajasthan: 66.67
 
Approaching milestones:

- Sanath Jayasuriya (735) needs 65 runs to become the fourth batsmen to complete 800 runs in the Indian T20 series. The top three batsmen in terms of run-aggregate are: Adam Gilchrist (985), Suresh Raina (855) and Gautam Gambhir (820).