Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the Mumbai Indians (MI) in their opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) campaign against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as announced on Wednesday (Mar 19). With MI set to take on CSK, regular skipper Hardik Pandya will serve a one-match suspension which from last season with Suryakumar set to deputise. The opening clash for both sides will take place at the iconic MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai as both push for an unprecedented sixth IPL title in 2025.

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Suryakumar Yadav to lead MI

"Yeah, Surya obviously leads India as well. When I am not there, he is the ideal choice in this format (to lead). He is an exciting option as well," Hardik Pandya said on Wednesday.

Found guilty of slow overrate in their final match of IPL 2024, Hardik was suspended for one match. Since MI were knocked out in the league stage, the ban was forwarded to the current season, meaning Hardik will have to sit out of the CSK clash. However, with no shortage of captaincy material MI have opted for Surya who is currently India’s T20I captain.

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He was promoted to the role after Rohit Sharma retired from the T20 format for India in June 2024. Interestingly, MI also had the options of Rohit and Jasprit Bumrah but the latter is unavailable for the first half of the IPL 2025 season while Rohit was not keen on the role for one match.

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Hardik’s absence will also mean MI will have to do without the skipper and Bumrah for the high-voltage clash. Both CSK and MI have a great rivalry between them and share 10 IPL titles between them.

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The match between MI and CSK will start at 7:30 PM on Sunday (Mar 23) with the toss taking place at 7:00 PM IST.