The five-time champions, the Chennai Super Kings (CSk) and Mumbai Indians (MI), will square off on Sunday, March 23 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Since regular captain Hardik Pandya has been barred from playing in the first two games of the forthcoming tournament, MI is searching for a replacement leader.
The most recent update is that Hardik Pandya himself has now announced who will fill in as captain in his absence for the season opener against CSK.
Suryakumar Yadav, an experienced batter and captain of India, is expected to assume leadership duties for the team’s next match.
“Surya will be the ideal choice when I am not there,” Hardik said during the pre-season press conference on Wednesday, March 19.
𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞
Stay tuned for all updates here
https://t.co/hjq62ItHrf#MumbaiIndians #PlayLikeMumbai
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 19, 2025
Hardik Pandya on our captain for #CSKvMI:
“Suryakumar Yadav leads India as well. He will lead Mumbai Indians in the first match of TATA IPL 2025”
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 19, 2025
Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma were also mentioned as possible captains in Hardik’s absence; however, the stalwart captain himself has declared that the Men in Blue T20I captain will now assume the responsibilities.
“Over the years, SKY has scored a significant number of runs. He is batting beautifully, in my opinion. “He has demonstrated the ability to win matches for both India and the Mumbai Indians,” Hardik added about his subordinate.
Regarding Suryakumar’s record as captain, he has guided the side in 39 Twenty20 matches, including three for the Mumbai Indians in 2023 following Rohit’s injury. As captain, he has won 28 Twenty20 matches and lost 10. His excellent batting record as captain includes a century, eight half-centuries, and 1068 runs at a strike-rate of 164.56 in 37 games.
His 40th game as captain will now be against Chennai, and the Mumbai batsman will want to get things off to a good start for MI. The match will take place at Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, March 23. Hardik is expected to return as the team’s leader for the remainder of the tournament when they play the Gujarat Titans on March 29.
Mumbai Indians Squad for IPL 2025
Hardik Pandya (captain), Suryakumar Yadav (vice-captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Arjun Tendulkar, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickelton (wicketkeeper), Robin Minz (wicketkeeper), Bevon Jacobs, Krishnan Shrijith, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Vignesh Puthur, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Karn Sharma, Reece Topley, Satyanarayana Raju
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