GT vs MI Live Score, IPL 2025 Eliminator: Shubman's Gujarat await stern Test against Jasprit Bumrah

India Today

a day ago

Official visuals confirm that Jonny Bairstow makes his Mumbai Indians debut in the IPL Eliminator. What weird times we live in. He is expected to open his innings alongside Rohit Sharma.
Suryakumar Yadav has owned the middle overs in the tournament. He has the highest contribution in overs 7-15 in IPL 2025, with 480 runs.
Heinrich Klaasen is the second in the list with 332 runs to his name in the middle overs.
Shubman's biggest challenge in terms of bowling changes has been the poor form of Rashid Khan. Rashid has been way off his mark this season. He has not been effective in any part of the game. The star spinner has picked just 9 wickets from 14 games and has been one of the major underperformers in this season of the tournament.
GT assistant coach on Rashid Khan (April 18):
"Rashid went through a surgery because his back was hurting last year. Sometimes when you are in so much pain during matches, you tend to do certain things with your action so that it pains less. There have been a few things about which we spoke this year after 2–3 games, where he needs to make a few adjustments with his front hand, which has been rather closed, while it should be facing the batter. He is doing that now and bowling better lengths in the last two-three games," Gujarat assistant coach Aashish Kapoor explained ahead of the team's match against Delhi Capitals.
"Hopefully he gets his confidence back and clinches a few wickets and we will have our old Rashid back," he added.
Legendary Sunil Gavaskar analyses Shubman Gill's captaincy and says that his handling of the bowlers will be key in today's game against Mumbai Indians. Gavaskar says that if Shubman is able to make smart changes against the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, that will be the differentiator between the two sides on Friday.
GT XI: Shubman Gill (c), Kusal Mendis (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Gerald Coetzee, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Impact Sub: Sai Sudharsan
MI XI: Jonny Bairstow (wk), Rohit Sharma, Charith Asalanka, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Impact Sub: Ashwani Kumar
The pitch in Mullanpur was heavily biased towards the bowlers in the Qualifier 1. In the opening overs there was ample amount of seam movement, and later there was grip and turn for the spinners. However, in PBKS vs RCB, opener Phil Salt showed that there were runs on board in the wicket once the batter settled down after the initial burst from the fast bowlers.
There is no chance of rain on the day of the Eliminator, although intermittent clouds will be there throughout. Temperatures will be around the 33-degree Celsius mark with the humidity in the 30s and 40s.
GT have won five out of seven matches against MI since the two teams first met in 2022. In fact, the Titans are on a four-match winning streak against the five-time champions.
GT vs MI: RECENT RESULTS
The Titans haven't had the best of times of late. They finished the league stage with defeats to the Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). The losses meant that not only did GT lose their top spot, but slipped out of the top two.
The equation is fairly simple for both teams. You win, you go ahead in the tournament and face Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 2. You lose, you simply crash out of the competition. For Gujarat, it may seem a little harsh that their fate depends on just one single game in the IPL playoffs, given they had led the table for the majority of the tournament. However, a terrible loss of form in the final two group games of the season has meant that GT have been forced to settle in the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League.
Read our match preview here.
Mumbai and Gujarat have had very different styles of play in the IPL 2025. While Mumbai are very much dependent on at least two of their batters firing through the ranks, Gujarat are entirely dependent on their top order - Shubman, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler - three of the top 10 run-scorers this season.
Shubman Gill was recently announced as the Test captain of the Indian team. He has led GT admirably this season, and the Eliminator will be his first big test in this tournament.
If Shubman keeps a cool head on his shoulders and performs with the bat as well, it will make a massive number of Indian cricket fans happy.
Both teams have signed replacements for their missing players, and are likely to use them.
Gujarat are likely to play Kusal Mendis, while Mumbai have Jonny Bairstow and Charith Asalanka as the replacements for Rickelton and Jacks respectively.
Both teams have several players missing in the competition.
Gujarat do not have Jos Buttler, one of their main players in the line-up, and will also miss the services of Kagiso Rabada.
Mumbai, on the other hand, will be missing Ryan Rickelton, Will Jacks and Corbin Bosch.
The players are away on national duty.
Hello and welcome to India Today's coverage of the Indian Premier League's Eliminator. Mumbai Indians are set to face Gujarat Tiitans in a now or never clash. The loser will get knocked out of the tournament, while the winner of this clash will face Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad.