CSK picked three spinners for their first home game of the IPL 2025 season against Mumbai

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Mar-20259:50

Rayudu: The MI-CSK rivalry is real

Chennai Super Kings won the toss in Chennai and had no reservations deciding to chase in their IPL 2025 opener against Mumbai Indians. The pitch wore a sheen and looked hard as against the expectations from CSK, who have three quality spinners in their line-up.Suryakumar Yadav, the MI stand-in captain, said he would have batted first anyway because there hasn’t been much dew around due to windy conditions in the night. There were two exciting newcomers for MI. Well they built them up at any rate. S Raju was the fast bowler expected to be their death specialist, and left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur was a possible Impact Player when they start their defence later in the night.On a day that had been excellent for at least one Jharkhand wicketkeeper, MI handed a debut to Robin Minz to make it three Jharkhand wicketkeepers in IPL action on the same day.The third one, MS Dhoni, of course continued to be a leader for CSK without a title. As is the case usually with CSK, they were not handing out any debuts, banking instead on experienced players. R Ashwin came back to the team representing his beloved home town of Chennai. Nathan Ellis edged out Matheesha Pathirana. CSK had a more established left-arm wristspinner of their own in Noor Ahmad.Mumbai Indians 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 3 Will Jacks, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Naman Dhir, 7 Robin Minz, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 S RajuSubstitutes: Vignesh Puthur, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Karn SharmaChennai Super Kings 1 Rachin Ravindra, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Ravindra Jadeja, 6 Sam Curran, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Nathan Ellis, 11 Khaleel AhmedSubstitutes: Rahul Tripathi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Vijay Shankar, Jamie Overton, Shaik Rasheed