The third game of the IPL 2025 will be the El Classico between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. They are the two most successful teams with five titles each to their names. Since 2012, MI has not not won an opening game of the tournament but have managed to win five titles till now. On the other hand, CSK was the most consistent side till 2019.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the team is either winning the title or finishing outside of the playoffs. Both teams finished outside of the playoffs last season (CSK finished 5th and MI finished last). Both teams are looking strong on paper and would like to start the tournament in the same way. Both teams have played each other 37 times in the IPL. MI has won 20 games while CSK has won 17. In Chennai, MI has won five out of eight games against CSK.
CSK vs MI: Predicted Playing XI
This is the best possible playing XI for the first match of the tournament. The playing XI is expected to be the same unless the pitch demands other players to be included. However, there is an impact player rule which makes one of these players be replaced during the game.
| Chennai Super Kings | Mumbai Indians |
|---|---|
| Ruturaj Gaikwad (c) | Rohit Sharma |
| Devon Conway ✈️ | Ryan Rickelton (wk) ✈️ |
| Rahul Tripathi | Tilak Varma |
| Deepak Hooda | Suryakumar Yadav (c) |
| Shivam Dube | Robin Minz (wk) |
| Ravindra Jadeja | Hardik Pandya |
| MS Dhoni (wk) | Naman Dhir |
| Matheesha Pathirana ✈️ | Deepak Chahar |
| Ravi Ashwin | Mitchell Santner ✈️ |
| Nathan Ellis ✈️ | Mujeeb Ur Rahman ✈️ |
| Anshul Kamboj | Trent Boult ✈️ |
CSK vs MI Squad
Mumbai Indians: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Bevon Jacobs, Robin Minz (wk), Naman Dhir, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Rohit Sharma, Krishnan Shrijith (wk), Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacks, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell Santner, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Vignesh Puthur, Satyanarayana Raju, Karn Sharma, Arjun Tendulkar, Reece Topley
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), C Andre Siddarth, Vansh Bedi (wk), Devon Conway (wk), MS Dhoni (wk), Shaik Rasheed, Rahul Tripathi, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sam Curran, Shivam Dube, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Deepak Hooda, Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Jamie Overton, Rachin Ravindra, Vijay Shankar, Khaleel Ahmed, Nathan Ellis, Gurjapneet Singh, Mukesh Choudhary, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Noor Ahmad, Matheesha Pathirana
CSK vs MI: Injury Updates
Chennai Super Kings: The team is free of injuries and all their players are available to play.
Mumbai Indians: Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out for the first three matches. Hardik Pandya can’t play the opening game due to over-rate offense at the end of 2024 season. Allah Gazanfar has been replaced by Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Lizaad Williams has been replaced by Corbin Bosch due to injuries.
