IPL 2025: Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya wins toss, opts to bowl against SRH

MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to bowl against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Thursday.

Pandya also gave an update on Jasprit Bumrah, ” He (Bumrah) is fine. We don’t need to worry about Jasprit Bumrah; if he’s not fit, he wouldn’t have been here.”

“We are going to bowl first. I think it has a lot to do with the dew. Last night, there was dew, and it’s always better to bat second at the Wankhede. Same side. Everyone knew we had to give it our all, and that brought us closer. That’s (changing the batting order), depending on the situation, we will do that, we back all the batters in our team,” he noted.

The SRH captain praised the wicket, “That’s fine. It looks like a pretty good wicket. Same side. I think Abhi is still looking at the highlights (laughs). But we had a nice break, a couple of practice sessions, and here we are, five days go by like that. I don’t think so (reverse swing plays a big part), especially in certain venues…Hyderabad because it is dry and it will be even tougher (to get reverse) as we go along in the tournament, as the dew comes in.”

The Hardik Pandya-led side is languishing at seventh position with two wins and four defeats in six matches, while the 2016 champions, Hyderabad, are at ninth position with two wins and four defeats in six matches. It is the net run rate separating the two sides in the points table.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami, Eshan Malinga

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Karn Sharma. (ANI)