🏏IPL 2025,M 38 CSK vs MI on Apr20th.7.30PM @Wankhede Stadium,Mumbai🏏

🏏IPL 2025 – Match 38: Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings | April 20, 7:30 PM IST | Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai🏏

Mumbai Indians (MI) will look to avenge their defeat to arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings (CSK) from earlier in the IPL 2025 when the two teams clash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, April 20.

Mumbai started their campaign with four defeats from their first five games in IPL 2025. However, Hardik Pandya and Co. have been able to muster a comeback, having won their last two matches. In their most recent fixture, the five-time champions eased past Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium. After restricting Pat Cummins and Co. to 162/5, MI reached the target with four wickets and 11 balls to spare.

Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings ended their five-match losing streak in the last game when they defeated Lucknow Super Giants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. CSK bowlers kept Lucknow down to 166/7 in their 20 overs before Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni's unbeaten partnership of 57 runs off 28 balls to them home in 19.3 overs with five wickets to spare. Dhoni rolled back the years as he scored an unbeaten 26 off 11 balls, also winning the Player of the Match award. The 43-year-old will look to guide his team to another win on Sunday, as they are still languishing at the bottom of the points table.

Preview

Circa 2024: Hardik Pandya to MS Dhoni - 19.3 6, 19.4 6, 19.5 6, 19.6 2. Dhoni smashes 20 off the last four deliveries and CSK finish with 26 in the final over. There was Dhoni mania in the stands. Rohit Sharma comes out and hammers a century to raise MI hopes. The home team still loses. The CSK win margin was exactly the runs scored by Dhoni off the four deliveries he faced. One of the classics of IPL 2024.

Cut to present and, same teams and virtually same players. MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin... and the Wankhede. The El Clasico of the IPL season is here. More often than not, this has been one of the marquee clashes of the season. But this year, it may not exactly live up to the hype, hoopla and billing of a MI-CSK contest.

At the halfway stage of the league, Chennai Super Kings' playoff hopes are hanging by a thread. They are still technically in contention, but it's only a mathematical possibility. With just two wins from seven matches, they languish at the bottom of the table. They need to win at least six - if not all seven - of their remaining games. In short, they need nothing less than a miracle.

"It's a delicate phase, isn't it?," a wry Stephen Fleming, coach of CSK, admitted rather disappointingly. "Unfortunately the position we find ourselves in, we have run out of time to be too patient on the other hand. We've got eyes on the season, but we've also got a little bit of a look forward, making sure that we are developing players for the future and that might be the second half of the season, if it doesn't go well over the next couple of games."

"Our results to date have brought all the squad members into play. It's been our tradition in the past to stick with more experienced players and they've given us the results that we were after." CSK and Fleming have not exactly given up hope, but it feels like they're shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Mumbai Indians are not in a much better position either - they have managed just one more win than CSK and have lost more games than they have won so far. However, with Bumrah, Suryakumar, and Hardik hitting form, they can still hope for a turnaround in the second half of the season.

For a turnaround to happen, Mumbai Indians will need their talisman, Rohit, to step up. The former captain has started showing signs of his true form, particularly during his brief but impactful innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede. Although he faced just 16 deliveries, he still made his presence felt with a typically swashbuckling 25. With a few more overs at the crease in the upcoming games, MI's campaign could be back on track. Unlike the pitch for the SRH game, the surface for Sunday night's contest is expected to favor the batters, and Rohit should thrive in these conditions. An MI resurgence is difficult but not impossible.

Wankhede crowd is gonna fire up tonight!

Pitch and conditions

Having lost to CSK in their opening game on a slow turner at Chepauk, MI would not want the kind of spin-friendly pitch they played on against SRH for the CSK game, especially without Karn, and with Noor Ahmad, Jadeja and Rachin Ravindra in the opposition camp. Their batting plans are falling in place, which means a high-scoring track - like the one against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) - may suit them better. Whatever the pitch, the team winning the toss is expected to chase as there has been some dew in Mumbai in hot and humid conditions.

The pitch will be different from the one used in the previous game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, with the Wankhede expected to return to its usual, batter-friendly nature - a true belter. A high-scoring contest is likely, and the team winning the toss is expected to opt to field.

In the spotlight: Rohit Sharma and Shivam Dube

Shivam Dube has struck at 128.57 this IPL, a steep slide from his 150-plus strike rates in the last three seasons. He has improved in the last couple of games after sub-20 scores at the start, but still, scores of 43* off 37 and 31* off 29 suggest that he isn't at his best yet. Oppositions have also started to keep spinners away from him to try and keep him quiet. Dube now returns to his domestic home ground where he once hit five sixes in an over in a Ranji Trophy game, and will hope familiar conditions help him hit the pedal.

Almost everything is falling in place for MI, except for Rohit Sharma's form. Batters around him and after him are all scoring while his average for the season has dipped to just 13.66, having faced 57 balls this IPL. Since Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks - his partners in the top three - have looked good in the last few games, this could take some burden off Rohit's shoulders to try and get out of this rut.

Thanks Soni for the tag and thread looking forward to watching the match

Team news: Brevis links up with CSK

Legspinner Karn Sharma had split a webbing in his bowling hand while fielding in their last game and is unlikely to play against CSK after getting a couple of stitches on the hand. Depending on the conditions for this game, MI could bring in either left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur or left-arm quick Ashwani Kumar, who took 4 for 24 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) the last time he played at the Wankhede.

Mumbai Indians 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Naman Dhir, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah, 12 Vignesh Puthur/Ashwani Kumar

Dewald Brevis has joined the CSK squad as a replacement player and is available for the game even though he didn't train a whole lot since reaching India. Fleming said on Saturday that they are likely to give some of the younger players, such as bowling allrounder Ramakrishna Ghosh and fast bowler Kamlesh Nagarkoti, more chances. Ravindra Jadeja is set to continue at No. 4.

Chennai Super Kings 1 Rachin Ravindra, 2 Shaik Rasheed, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Ravindra Jadeja, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Anshul Kamboj, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Khaleel Ahmed, 12 Matheesha Pathirana

Head to Head: MI 20-18 CSK, with the home team leading 7-5 at the venue. Since 2022, it is 5-1 in favour of CSK. They had also won the first leg at Chepauk, the third match of the season. Since the start of the IPL 2021 second leg, CSK have won six out of seven games against MI, including each of the last four

Team News:

Mumbai Indians

Injury & Availability: Karn Sharma is a doubtful starter, having had stitches to his right thumb. The rest are available.

Tactics and match-ups: The pitch is expected to be a belter, which could suit the MI gameplan. They preferred a slower, more challenging surface against SRH to stifle their free-flowing batters, but the scenario is different with CSK, whose batters are not as explosive. Bumrah will be crucial in containing Rachin Ravindra, who is coming off an impactful innings vs SRH (37 off 22). Rohit Sharma will continue to play his role as the Impact Player.

Chennai Super Kings

Injury & Availability: No injuries. MS Dhoni, who was seen limping in some viral videos, batted at the nets. New recruits Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis have joined the squad.

Tactics & Matchups: Khaleel Ahmed has a good matchup with Rohit, Suryakumar, Hardik and Tilak Varma. R Ashwin, dropped for the last game, may come in as an Impact Player.

Did you know?

- Seven of Tilak Varma's eight 50-plus scores in the IPL have come in defeats, the most recent one vs DC being the exception. He has usually stepped up when the rest of the MI batters have struggled.

- Hardik has conceded 32 off the nine full deliveries he's bowled in Overs 16-20. Further breakdown: Three sixes off three full-tosses, four singles off four yorkers and a six and a four off half-volleys.

Stats and trivia: Dhoni vs Bumrah

Khaleel Ahmed bowled an impressive first spell of 3-0-22-1 against LSG and he will want to bowl to Rohit on Sunday because of this match-up: 28 runs in 43 balls for three dismissals and no sixes.

Jadeja could have a similar feeling while bowling to Suryakumar Yadav, which could happen in the middle overs. Jadeja has conceded just 47 runs to Suryakumar in 62 balls while removing him three times.

MS Dhoni is known to prefer pace bowlers as opposed to spinners. How he tackles Jasprit Bumrah could be interesting because he has scored just 60 runs off 61 balls against Bumrah in the IPL, hitting only three fours and two sixes while also falling three times. In the death overs, Dhoni has struck at 110.25 against Bumrah, which is only marginally better.

The fierce rivalry between MI and CSK reflects in their head-to-head too: MI have won 20 out of the 38 clashes between these two teams. But CSK are on a four-match winning streak right now.