Why is Hardik Pandya not playing CSK vs MI IPL 2025 match? Who is MI captain?

The important news update is that regular Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya is not available for the El Clasico of Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings (CSK) being played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Mumbai Indians did not experienced the best of time during the last edition of the T20 tournament as they finished with the wooden spoon having managed to win just 4 games and suffered a total of 10 losses. However, with a few changes both in the batting as well as bowling departments, the five-time champions will be hoping for an improved season in IPL 2025 and aiming to win their record sixth trophy. 

Why is Hardik Pandya not playing today's CSK vs MI IPL 2025 match?

Other than finished at the bottom of the points table, the trouble increased for the Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya as he managed to accumulate a total of three slow over-rate penalties which subsequently, slapped him with a one-match ban. Therefore, he will not be available for the Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians IPL 2025 encounter starting on Sunday. It has already been announced that India's T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav will be the Mumbai Indians captain in the absence of Pandya. 

On the other hand, it is a really important IPL 2025 season for Suryakumar as he has not experienced the best of forms recently in the shorter format of the game. However, he had an excellent IPL 2024 season with the bat for the Mumbai Indians as he notched up a fine tally of 345 runs from 11 games at a remarkable strike-rate of close to 170 that consisted of 3 fifties and 1 hundred. 

Apart from Hardik, Mumbai Indians will also miss the services of their premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah as he is reportedly not available for their first few matches in this Indian Premier League 2025 season. The Indian fast bowler who suffered a back injury during the fifth and final Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, after which he was also ruled out from their victorious ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign. The latest update is that Bumrah is still recovering from the injury and is expected to be fit midway in the competition. 

"I am good with batting first. We had a lovely camp back home, we were here 2-3 days before. Both are unbelievable franchises in terms of achievements. I am sure it will be a good game. Rickleton, Jacks, Santner and Boult are the four overseas," said Mumbai Indians stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav during the toss. 

MI Playing XI

Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Satyanarayana Raju.

Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: Vignesh Puthur, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Karn Sharma

MI IPL 2025 Squad

Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, Shrijith Krishnan, Raj Angad Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Bevan Jacobs, Lizaad Williams, Arjun Tendulkar, Vignesh Puthur.