Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya on Wednesday confirmed that he will not be present to lead the five-time champions in their highly-anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) season opener against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday evening.
Speaking at a Mumbai Indians press conference ahead of the season, Pandya said that he will have to miss the game with teammate and India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav taking over the reins at Chepauk. “Surya will be the ideal choice when I am not there,” said Pandya.
Why will Pandya miss the CSK vs MI IPL 2025 match?
After MI’s group-stage exit last year, Pandya was banned for the slow-over rate offence against the Lucknow Super Giants during the team’s last outing. It was the third time in 14 games where MI had failed to maintain the over-rates, resulting in the skipper’s ban, an INR 30 lakh match fee fine and the rest of the playing XII, including the Impact Player, were either fined Rs 12 lakh of 50 percent of their match fees.
With MI having already played all their matches, Pandya’s ban was carried to the first match of his forthcoming season. Returning to his first franchise after a two-season spell at the Gujarat Titans where he led the team to the title, Pandya had a forgettable season with MI after he took over the captaincy duties from senior star Rohit Sharma. MI finished at the bottom of the 10-team points table, winning only four matches.
Pandya will next be seen in action aginst his former franchise, Gujarat, on March 29 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
