The ace pacer of the Mumbai Indians (MI) Jasprit Bumrah is absent from their second IPL 2025 match against Gujarat Titans (GT), with skipper Hardik Pandya back in the team after a one-match ban. Pandya had missed MI’s first game but is now back to captain his team in this all-important match.
Jasprit Bumrah Still Sidelined Due to Injury
While MI welcome back their captain, ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah is not available. He had injured his back in the fifth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and has been out of competition ever since. Bumrah also sat out the Champions Trophy and was unavailable for the beginning of IPL 2025.
MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene spoke about Bumrah’s availability before the match.
“Everyone is available except for Bumrah. Like I said in my last interview as well, it’s on a daily basis that he’s going through his programme. So far, everything seems okay. But there were no timelines given by NCA, so we’ll wait on that,” Jayawardene said.
MI held on to Bumrah for Rs 18 crore ahead of the IPL 2025 mega-auction, making him their most paid player this year. The team is still keeping fingers crossed about his return in the tournament.
Hardik Pandya Wins Toss, Elects to Bowl First
Pandya won the toss and decided to bowl first, referring to uncertainty about the pitch and the possibility of the dew factor as major factors.
“We will bowl first. The simple reason is we don’t know how the pitch will play, plus the dew factor. Only last year we played on black soil, otherwise we have been playing on red soil. Last year, we had the game under wraps but couldn’t finish it. The prep has been fantastic, the boys are excited and we back each other, be there for each other,” Pandya declared during the toss.
Playing XIs for the Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians
Gujarat Titans (GT): Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler, Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
Mumbai Indians (MI): Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Satyanarayana Raju.
With Pandya returning to action, MI would hope to end their wait for a win during the season, while the Gujarat Titans would want to recover from their last defeat.
