Top player battles to watch out for in the MI vs KKR IPL 2025 match

Its now time for another blockbuster battle in the ongoing 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) as the Mumbai Indians (MI) are ready for their first home game of the season scheduled against the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking place on 31 March, 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Both these teams have witnessed quite different fortunes unfold so far in the T20 competition. Five-time champions Mumbai Indians have suffered back-to-back defeats in IPL 2025 at the hands of Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans while Kolkata Knight Riders managed to win their second match against Rajasthan Royals. 

MI vs KKR IPL head to head battle

The Mumbai Indians have once again started off poorly in yet another Indian Premier League season as they continued with their habit of performing below-par in the opening few matches. Hardik Pandya-led MI team first lost the El Clasico of IPL 2025 against Chennai Super Kings and then suffered another poor defeat against Gujarat Titans. On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders too had a poor start but they came back strongly to get the better of Rajasthan Royals. While talking about the exciting MI vs KKR head-to-head battle in the IPL history, the Mumbai Indians have had the upper hand with a dominating margin. 

Out of the 34 IPL matches played so far between these two teams, Mumbai Indians have managed to win as many as 23 games while Kolkata Knight Riders have emerged victorious on 11 occasions. However, it were the Kolkata Knight Riders who get the better of Mumbai Indians in both their meetings in IPL 2024. 

Top 3 player battles to watch out for in the MI vs KKR IPL 2025 match

1. Ajinkya Rahane vs Deepak Chahar

Newly appointed Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane had an amazing start with the bat in the Indian Premier League 2025 season scoring a fine half-century in the tournament opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, he failed to contribute much in the last match against Rajasthan Royals. On the other hand, right-arm pacer Deepak Chahar has had a decent start with the Mumbai Indians so far in IPL 2025. Interestingly, Rahane has not found much of success against Chahar in the IPL history. In their exciting head-to-head battle, the right-handed batter has been dismissed a total of four times by the Mumbai Indians pacer and has a poor strike-rate of below 100. 

2. Tilak Varma vs Harshit Rana

After an impressive international cricket batting form, Tilak Varma has got some fine starts in the last couple of outings but he failed to capitalize on them so far in this IPL 2025 season. On the other hand, the same has been the case with KKR fast bowler Harshit Rana having picked up just 2 wickets from as many matches. However, Harshit has an edge over Tilak so far in this T20 tournament. Rana has dismissed the southpaw twice in the Indian Premier League and the MI batter has a below-par strike-rate of just 86.67 against the right-arm speedster. 

3. Venkatesh Iyer vs Hardik Pandya

While coming into the IPL 2025 season with a huge price tag of INR 23.75 Crore, Venkatesh Iyer has not got going full throttle at the start of the competition. On the other side, Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya also had a pretty ordinary outing with the bat in his first game against Gujarat Titans. During the face-off between these two cricketers so far, Venkatesh Iyer has had the upper hand over the MI all-rounder. Iyer has a fantastic strike-rate of close to 165 against the pacer and Pandya hasn't dismissed the southpaw in the tournament so far. Therefore, it will be an interesting battle between these two players to watch out for in the Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2025 match starting on Monday.