IPL 2025: CSK Start Their Campaign Against A Fiery Foe MI

Matches Played	37
Won by Chennai Super Kings	17
Won by Mumbai Indians	20
No Result	00
First Played	April 22, 2008
Last Played	April 14, 2024

CSK vs MI : Pitch Report

The pitch in Chennai has usually been a turning one. However, the previous season saw pacers getting considerable carry with the new ball. Batting is expected to be slightly more challenging than at other venues. A warm and humid evening. That is a given in Chennai, most times of the year.

What isn’t easily forecast, even by the CSK skipper, is the nature of the playing surface. CSK’s coaching staff have taken turns over the last two years to painstakingly stress that the Chepauk pitch hasn’t been the same since 2019. Spin hasn’t been an influencing factor and it remains to be seen if a desired course-correction has been achieved. Dew though could play a role. Teams that chased won five of the seven games here last year and chasing might well be the way to go.

A slow track, which might aid spin, is likely to be rolled out for Sunday’s game. There’s a chance that both teams could pack their XIs (or XIIs) with three frontline spinners. Dew was a major factor during IPL 2024 and also during TNPL 2024, but the new IPL rules, which allow the team bowling second to get the ball changed on demand once anytime after the tenth over in evening games, might help counter that.

CSK vs MI : Big Picture : IPL’s most-storied rivalry

It’s also a changing rivalry. An entire generation was used to seeing MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma walk out for the toss and call the shots. In IPL 2024, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Hardik Pandya took over captaincy but neither could lead their team to the playoffs. While CSK narrowly missed out, MI finished rock bottom and Hardik faced up to hostile receptions from their fans.

Hardik has likely won the MI fans back by helping India to the T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy titles, but he will miss Sunday’s game at Chepauk because of an over-rate offence from last season, with Suryakumar Yadav set to stand in as captain. Jasprit Bumrah’s injury – he is likely to be unavailable until April – disrupts MI’s balance even further. How can they replace two irreplaceable players?

History is also against MI. The last time they won the opening game of their season was way back in 2012. Coach Mahela Jayawardene said he was reminded of it even before their first press conference of the season.

Despite the churn of the mega auction and the dawn of a new cycle, familiar threads still run deep in this clash. MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma, who featured in this very fixture 13 years ago are set to line up again. The count rises to five, if you make an allowance for Suryakumar Yadav, then an unused squad member, now MI’s stand-in captain.

That IPL 2012 opener at Chepauk is a fitting flashback point before this game for it also marks the last time Mumbai Indians won their opening game of a season. It’s a streak they’d love to end, trivial as it may seem, to ensure their ‘project reset’ starts on firmer footing after a strangely rocky cycle marked by two wooden spoons.

CSK, too, will also know that continuity taken too far can spawn stagnation. They heralded a refreshingly new style of batting in 2023 but were leapfrogged by at least four other teams last year. They have a slightly different balance in 2025: perhaps lighter on power, but heavier on spin.

It might be just the right squad for the kind of pitch that they used to like to play on in Chennai. Much, then, will hinge on the kind of surfaces that greet them after a 2024 season in which CSK missed the playoffs for the first time while playing their home games at Chepauk. A clash against a hungry and pedigreed rival therefore is more than a blockbuster, it’s an early litmus test. Any cracks they show might not just be noticed – they’ll be targeted.

As for CSK, they’re back to their happy place – spin-friendly Chepauk. They have packed their squad with slower bowlers in a quest to maximise their home conditions. While R Ashwin will roll back the years – he has already said “it feels like 2011 again” at a recent book launch in Chennai – along with Ravindra Jadeja, Noor Ahmad might provide a peek into the future with his left-arm wrist spin.

Dhoni’s arrival in Chennai last month was enough to cause a stir. Imagine the kind of frenzy that could grip IPL 2025 if he reprises his age-defying six-hitting from last season. A full house at Chepauk, where the gates will be open to the public three hours before the start of the game, will be quite the spectacle.

Deepak Chahar has played all of his 81 IPL games with Dhoni in the same squad at both CSK and Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS). For the first time in his career, he will go up against Dhoni and CSK. Chahar and Trent Boult could form a mouth-watering new-ball partnership for MI. Mitchell Santner, who was also a familiar face at CSK for a number of years, has also found a new home at MI.

Rookie seamer Anshul Kamboj, who made his IPL debut for MI last season, has moved to CSK for IPL 2025. Given his ability to swing the new ball both ways, he’s a candidate to replace Chahar at CSK along with Khaleel Ahmed.

CSK vs MI : In the spotlight : Noor Ahmad and Suryakumar Yadav

Noor Ahmad, the 20-year-old Afghanistan wrist spinner, has already been named by Gaikwad as a player to watch out for from CSK. His ability to turn the ball both ways at quick speed could give CSK’s attack a potent point of difference, especially at Chepauk.

The last time he played a franchise T20 tournament on spin-friendly surfaces, he was often unplayable and came away with the Player-of-the-Tournament award in CPL 2024. Noor isn’t new to the Super Kings set-up: he has already worked with Stephen Fleming at Texas Super Kings in the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA.

Suryakumar Yadav has not passed 15 in his last five T20 innings – and fifty in his last nine innings – but MI have brushed off any concerns around his form. In his last innings against CSK at Chepauk, in 2023, he was tied down by Jadeja, Maheesh Theekshana and Moeen Ali on a slow track. Can he turn things around on Sunday

CSK vs MI : Vital Stats that matters

• Boult has been bossing Gaikwad having dismissed him three times in 26 balls in the IPL while conceding only 23 runs.
• Suryakumar has struggled against Jadeja in the IPL, managing 45 runs in 59 balls at a strike rate of less than 77 while being dismissed three times.
• Ashwin is the leading wicket-taker at Chepauk in the IPL with 50 strikes in 42 innings at an economy rate of 6.26.
• CSK have won five of their last six matches against MI, including three on the trot.
• Ruturaj Gaikwad won only three tosses from 14 games as captain last season
• Suryakumar Yadav averages 14.30 and has struck at only 120.77 in 13 T20s since the South Africa tour last year
• MS Dhoni has a strike-rate of 203.85 since the introduction of the Impact Player rule. He was walked out to bat after the 15th over in 23 of the last 24 innings.

CSK vs MI : Team News for CSK and MI

Chennai Super Kings

Injuries & Availability: CSK don’t have any major injury concerns to report. CSK’s players are injury-free, but they have a problem of plenty. Devon Conway or Rachin Ravindra? Vijay Shankar or Deepak Hooda? Sam Curran or Jamie Overton? Khaleel Ahmed or Anshul Kamboj?

Tactics & Matchups: If the pitch were to offer any turn, expect Black Caps skipper Mitchell Santner, who has just crossed the yellow-blue divide, to have a major say. But CSK might just have the antidote with as many as four left-handers in their top-six. Gaikwad said a decision has been made on the identity of their top-order. It’s essentially a toss-up between Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra.

The former forged a great partnership with Gaikwad in the 2023 title win, even winning the player of the match in the final. But Ravindra is the man in form, having just emerged as the player of the Champions Trophy. Going by his extended net session on the eve of the game and the constant nuggets of information he kept receiving from Michael Hussey and Stephen Fleming, Ravindra is likely to get the first crack.

Probable XII: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk.), Ravichandran Ashwin, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj

Mumbai Indians

Injuries & Availability: MI will have two notable absentees in Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. The former is still sidelined by a back injury he picked up at the New Year’s Test in Sydney while Pandya is serving a one-match ban for his team’s overrate offences last season.

MI have previously had high-profile overseas players like Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga. This season they have some relative unknowns in the IPL like Ryan Rickelton and Bosch. With two of their highest-profile Indian players unavailable for their opener in IPL 2025, how will they manage without compromising on their batting depth or bowling options? Is Bosch the best candidate to slot in for Hardik

Tactics & Matchups:

Ruturaj Gaikwad has been dismissed thrice in 26 balls by Trent Boult for the concession of just 23 runs. It’s a match-up that could set the tone for the rest of the game given how influential both players are to their teams’ fortunes. In the absence of Hardik, Suryakumar will lead MI in their opening fixture.

South Africa allrounder Corbin Bosch, who won the SA20 with MI Cape Town, might be brought in to provide the balance that Hardik usually does, unless MI lean towards an extra overseas spinner in Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Satyanarayana Raju, who often bowled at the death in the Andhra Premier League, might come in as an Impact Player, in place of one of the batters, when MI bowl. Raju, 25, was among the first group of bowlers to bowl at the nets on the eve of the game.

Probable XII: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Naman Dhir, Robin Minz (wk.), Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch,  Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Satyanarayana Raju/Arjun Tendulkar, Vignesh Puthur

Star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is coming off a confidence-boosting Champions Trophy 2025 campaign. The spin-bowling all-rounder could be expected to make the most of his form and deliver another significant performance with the ball. His wicket-taking ability could also put him in contention for the IPL 2025 Purple Cap.

CSK vs MI : Match Prediction

Scenario 1

• Chennai Super Kings win the toss and opt to bowl first
• Powerplay: 45-55
• MI: 165-185
• Chennai Super Kings win the match

Scenario 2

• Mumbai Indians win the toss and opt to bowl first
• Powerplay: 50-60
• CSK: 170-190
• Chennai Super Kings win the match

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