At the opening match of IPL 2025 in Mumbai, the captain of the Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya, won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The XI that lost to Gujarat Titans in the last game saw three alterations, as allrounder Will Jacks, left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur, and uncapped left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar were added to the lineup. The bowling first XI did not include Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Satyanarayana Raju, while Rohit Sharma is expected to join as the Impact Player for the chase. This also means that Robin Minz will not be playing in this game.
At the young age of 23, Kumar has already participated in four T20 matches for Punjab, managing to secure two wickets with an economy rate of 8.50.
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KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane announced that Sunil Narine had fully recuperated from his illness, which sidelined him in the last match against Rajasthan Royals. As a result, Moeen Ali was dropped from the playing XI. It is expected that KKR will opt for Vaibhav Arora to join the bowling attack if they are defending in the second innings.
Mumbai cricketer Rahane expressed his confusion with the pitch, noting its small amount of grass, which made him believe that losing the toss was actually advantageous.
Despite their strong efforts, Mumbai has yet to secure a victory in IPL 2025. So far, they have faced defeat on the road against both Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans.
Introducing the Kolkata Knight Riders’ starting batting lineup for today’s match: (1) Sunil Narine, (2) Quinton de Kock on wicket-keeping duties, (3) Ajinkya Rahane leading the team as captain, followed by (4) Venkatesh Iyer, (5) Rinku Singh, and (6) Angkrish Raghuvanshi. The rest of the lineup includes (7) Andre Russell, (8) Ramandeep Singh, (9) Spencer Johnson, (10) Harshit Rana, and finally (11) Varun Chakravarthy.
KKR’s selection of Impact Players include Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, and Luvnith Sisodia.
The first XI for Mumbai Indians, who will bowl first, consists of: Ryan Rickelton as the wicket-keeper, Will Jacks at second position, Suryakumar Yadav at third, Tilak Varma at fourth, Hardik Pandya as captain at fifth, Naman Dhir at sixth, Mitchell Santner at seventh, Deepak Chahar eighth, Trent Boult ninth, Ashwani Kumar tenth and Vignesh Puthur eleventh.
The list of potential impact players for MI includes Rohit Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, and Satyanarayana Raju.
