IPL-2025: Mumbai Indians to face Lucknow Super Giants at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai: LSG opt to bowl
Lucknow Super Giants have won the toss and have opted to field
Hardik Pandya: We were planning to bowl, but looking at the heat – we don’t mind batting as well. It’s about adapting and not think too much about the heat. ESA game has always been very special, the initiative by Ambani has been very special and it gives us added motivation, let’s give them (the children) a good show. The momentum always helps, but in IPL every game matters and do the right things. 2 changes. Karn Sharma comes in for Mitch Santner. Corbin Bosch makes his debut as well, Puthur misses out.
Rishabh Pant: We are bowling first. In a day game you want to utilize the surface. We are in a good space and personally Its easier to put the team ahead, makes it easier. Eventually you want to play good cricket and take everyday as your first day. One change. Shardul is out and Mayank Yadav is in.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Corbin Bosch, Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav
The IPL, they say, is largely about the second half – right or wrong, many teams believe so. There are countless examples of the sides starting with a whimper and finishing on a high – RCB, for instance, in the last season, when they won the last six games in a row to make the playoffs. KKR in 2014 (title) and 2021 (finalists) and CSK in 2010 (champions) are a few other examples. Mumbai Indians, anyway, have a reputation for slow starts, season after season, yet they’ve gone on to lift the title five times.
Four wins in the last five after only one in the first four, Mumbai Indians are living up to their reputation. But the momentum seems to have, well and truly, returned to their campaign. There may also be a case that the turnaround, started with three game-changing back-to-back run-outs in Delhi, may have coincided with Rohit Sharma’s return to form.
After only 38 runs in the first four games, he has amassed 190 in the next four, having particularly looked in ominous touch in the last three matches. His mojo is back and no wonder MI have won all these games. Kieron Pollard didn’t miss the chance for an ‘I told you so’ moment.
“If my memory serves me right, at the start of this competition, that question was different. I said sitting right here, we are going to be singing his praises. We always had that belief that he is going to come good. Sometimes there are dips. For someone who has played this sport for a long time, you have these moments. You just need that extra support from people. Now we are singing his praises. We are all very happy. In the Mumbai dressing room, we were happy at the start as well, knowing that it is going to happen,” the batting coach said.
Suryakumar Yadav too is growing in strengths and MI batting looks as strong as it is known to be. The wheels are also turning ominously on the bowling front too, with Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Jasprit Bumrah looking in rhythm. Normal services seem to have returned for MI ahead of their home face-off against Lucknow Supergiants.
LSG, level on points with MI, have struggled to build any serious momentum. It’s been a stop-start season, further complicated by the poor form of skipper Rishabh Pant. With just 106 runs in nine games, the league’s costliest player has looked completely out of sorts – the most telling sight witnessed in the last match when he batted at No. 7. Pant’s form is a problem for the Supergiants.
Bowling, though, has been LSG’s calling card of the season. Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, and above all, Digvesh Rathi – have all delivered in some way or the other. More so the spinners who are the second most successful group in the IPL after CSK.
It was partly because the pitches have been helpful and the batters have also struggled against quality spin this season. “Why are you not saying the spinners are doing well,” countered Ravi Bishnoi. “Bowlers are also bowling well. Rathi is bowling well in his first year. We as a bowler and spin unit are working hard on ourselves. The game has changed. All of a sudden it is a batters game now. So we are trying hard to deceive the batsmen as well.”
Bishnoi & Co. will face their toughest test yet when they take on the red-hot duo of Rohit and Suryakumar at the Wankhede on Sunday (April 27) evening.
