Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya includes 150kph rocket in crucial Eliminator vs Gujarat Titans
Image credit: BCCI/IPL
NEW DELHI:
Mumbai Indians
skipper
Hardik Pandya
won the toss and chose to bat first against Gujarat Titans in the high-stakes Eliminator of IPL 2025, held at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, on Friday.
The winner of this match will go on to face Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 2 Ahmedabad.
Pandya made three significant changes to the playing XI for the knockout clash. The MI skipper included England pacer
Richard Gleeson
who is known to bowl 150plus thunderbolts.
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"We're going to bat. Looks like a different track to yesterday. Bit of less grass. Big game, scoring runs and defending would be nice. We all are aware, for the last 9 games we have been playing it like a knockout.
Really need to turn up today and focus on the things which we can control. We've got three changes: Jonny comes back, Gleeson makes his debut and Raj Angad Bawa plays," Hardik said at the toss.
Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill mentioned he would have preferred to chase if he had won the toss.
'I don't want to be a one-season wonder': Punjab Kings' Shashank Singh
"We would've chased. If someone would've said at the start of the season that we would've qualified, we would've taken it. Boys are very excited to be able to come back here in Chandigarh, it's my home town.
This game is no different for us, no pressure of the knockout game or anything. Two changes - Mendis comes in for Buttler and Washington for Arshad," Gill said.
Playing XIs:
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow (w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Richard Gleeson
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kusal Mendis (w), Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Gerald Coetzee, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Impact Substitutes:
Mumbai Indians: Krishnan Shrijith, Raghu Sharma, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley
Gujarat Titans: Sherfane Rutherford, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Jayant Yadav, Arshad Khan
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