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Mumbai Indians, after two consecutive losses, are eager to make a comeback against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2025.
Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians will take on Ajinkya Rahane-led Kolkata Knight Riders in the 12th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday, March 31.
Mumbai Indians had a disappointing start to their campaign as they lost two successive matches. The five-time IPL champions lost their opening match against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk. The side was led by Suryakumar Yadav as regular captain Hardik Pandya was serving a one-match ban from IPL 2024 due to excessive slow over-rate offences. Despite Hardik returning to lead MI, the team fortunes did not change as they lost to Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad.
Kolkata Knight Riders, on the other hand, did not have an ideal start to their campaign as the defending champions, losing their opening match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Kolkata. However, Ajinkya Rahane-led KKR made a comeback in their second outing of the season, defeating Rajasthan Royals to register their first win of the season. Quinton de Kock was the star performer for KKR as his 97-run knock helped the side chase down 152-run target.
After two successive losses of the IPL 2025, Mumbai Indians will be eager to make a strong comeback in front of the home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium. In the match against Gujarat Titans, MI’s middle-order batters failed to make an impact while chasing the 197-run target set by the hosts. MI were restricted to 160/6 in 20 overs despite Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav’s valiant innings of 39 and 48, respectively.
Hardik Pandya failed to make an impact as he struggled to score runs in the middle. Mumbai Indians’ middle-order has been inconsistent as the team has relied on top-order batters like Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Tilak Varma. Rohit had yet another forgettable outing as he was dismissed for just 8 runs. Rohit Sharma needs to come up with a good performance in order to give a steady start to MI’s innings at the top. Mumbai Indians will have to fix middle-order batting woes in order to stage a strong comeback and avoid a third consecutive defeat.
After finishing at the bottom of the points table in IPL 2024, Mumbai Indians will look to avoid another disappointing campaign this season.
After opening their account against Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders will aim for the second consecutive win to maintain the winning momentum. Quinton de Kock, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, and Angkrish Raghuvansh’s forms will be crucial for KKR to build a strong total or chase down targets effectively. KKR will be hoping for Sunil Narine to be fit for the match. Narine was ruled out of the clash against RR due to illness.
The bowling unit led by Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana will be crucial to restrict Mumbai Indians’ batting line-up at Wankhede. In the last match against Rajasthan Royals, KKR’s collective bowling effort was on display, with Chakravarthy, Moeen Ali, Rana, and Vaibhav Arora picking two wickets each, while Spencer Johnson took a scalp. A similar bowling performance would be enough for Kolkata Knight Riders to put Mumbai Indians under pressure early in the match.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Satyanarayana Raju, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Vignesh Puthur, Karn Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Reece Topley, Bevon Jacobs, Arjun Tendulkar, Krishnan Shrijith
Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh , Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia, Sunil Narine, Chetan Sakariya, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell
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