Mumbai Indians had a poor start to their IPL 2025 campaign. There were question marks on the team composition but the five-time champions eventually found a way to get back to winning ways. The Hardik Pandya-led side won eight out of their 14 matches in the league stage and made it to the Playoffs. In their upcoming game, Mumbai will play Gujarat Titans in the Eliminator. The winning team will move to Qualifier 2, while the losing team will have to exit the competition.
Ahead of that, Mumbai suffered a major blow as two of their first-team players won’t be available for the playoffs. South Africa’s Ryan Rickelton and England’s Will Jacks have travelled to the UK for international duty. It is a massive blow for the side as both Rickelton and Jacks had done well in the league. In their absence, MI have signed Jonny Bairstow and Charith Asalanka. Meanwhile, Corbin Bosch too will be unavailable but Richard Gleeson is very unlikely to feature in the XI.
Out-of-favour England batter Baristow will open alongside Rohit Sharma. Suryakumar Yadav is very likely to earn a promotion to number three as the India T20I captain is in fine form and, more importantly, Asalanka might not be the right candidate for number three. Tilak Varma can fit in at number, followed by Asalanka at five and captain Hardik at six. Naman Dhir and Mitchell Santner can feature at numbers seven and eight, respectively.
The bowling department looks sorted. Jasprit Bumrah has been terrific in the last few matches and will be gunning to help MI make it to Qualifier 2. Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar have done well too.
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Jonny Bairstow (wk), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Charith Asalanka, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah