Mumbai Indians will be without the services of their regular skipper Hardik Pandya for the opener and lead seamer Jasprit Bumrah for the first few games, however, still the the Men in Blue look a good team with the Indian batting core they have and the extra options they have added to the bowling department ahead of the 2025 edition of the IPL. As they take on familiar foes Chennai Super Kings in their opening game, Mumbai Indians would be keen to get the monkey off their back, of getting across the line in their curtain-raiser, which has been sitting since 2012.
Mumbai Indians once again will look towards their batting while adding a couple of ex-CSK senior men in Mitchell Santner and Deepak Chahar to the bowling department while valuing Trent Boult's powerplay skills highly to get him back in set up. There are the likes of Corbin Bosch and Mujeeb ur Rahman, however, MI need one of the young Indian pacers to show up early in the competition as their batters will be tested by the CSK spin trio and hence need bowlers to restrict the home team.
For the last couple of years, Chepauk like several other venues has been a high-scoring venue but their auction picks suggested how the wicket might play for this year's IPL with R Ashwin and Noor Ahmad being spent on 19.75 crore rupees. CSK have quality batters and a decent bowling attack, picked for home advantage and hence will start as favourites against the Men in Blue, who'd be keen to get over the scars from the past.
My Dream11 team for IPL 2025 Match 3, CSK vs MI
Will Jacks, Tilak Varma, Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Mitchell Santner, Sam Curran, Trent Boult (vc), Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad
Probable Playing XIIs
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Devon Conway/Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Naman Dhir, Robin Minz/KL Shrijith (wk), Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Satyanarayana Raju/Arjun Tendulkar, Karn Sharma