Why will Hardik Pandya miss the match against CSK: The IPL 2025 season will kick off on March 22 with defending champions KKR hosting RCB. March 23, Saturday, will be a double-header, with the second game of the day being the IPL’s El Clasico—Chennai Super Kings hosting Mumbai Indians.
CSK will be led by skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, but MI will not be led by their captain Hardik Pandya as the all-rounder is set to miss his team’s first match of the season despite not being injured.
Hardik was named the skipper of MI ahead of IPL 2024 after being traded in from Gujarat Titans following two successful seasons, where he captained the Titans to an IPL trophy in 2022 and to a runners-up finish in IPL 2023, while MI under Rohit Sharma failed to reach an IPL final in the last four seasons.
However, the homecoming of Pandya turned out to be disastrous as MI finished at the bottom of the table.
The franchise is reinvigorated now following the IPL 2025 mega auction with the return of Trent Boult, a key player in their title-winning campaign in IPL 2020.
Why will MI captain Hardik Pandya miss the match against CSK?
MI skipper Hardik Pandya has been suspended for his team’s first match of IPL 2025 against CSK as he was guilty of the slow-over rate last season three times. The third occurrence happened in MI’s last match of IPL 2024, and hence, Pandya will carry over his one-game suspension to this season, therefore missing the game against CSK in Chennai.
The question the Mumbai Indians management now faces is over their interim skipper for one match against CSK. Rohit Sharma, their former captain, is an alternative. However, it feels that MI will hand the reins to Suryakumar Yadav for this game.
Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who has captained India in a few matches, including last year’s famous victory at Perth, is ruled out for at least the first 2-3 games and is reported to return in April.
Mumbai Indians squad for IPL 2025:
Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (C), Deepak Chahar, Bevon Jacobs, Satyanarayana Raju, Tilak Varma, Mitchell Santner, Ryan Rickelton, Reece Topley, Corbin Bosch, Naman Dhir, Will Jacks, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Vignesh Puthur, Raj Bawa, Ashwani Kumar, Arjun Tendulkar, Krishnan Shrijith.
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