Preview - No second chance as Gujarat-Mumbai prepare for IPL 2025 Eliminator

Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Titans (GT) will face off in a crucial IPL 2025 Eliminator on Friday (May 30) in Mullanpur, with both aiming to cross this playoff hurdle and win back the coveted trophy. While the winner faces Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad on Sunday (June 1), the loser gets knocked out of the tournament, making it a do-or-die game. Here is the match preview of the IPL 2025 Eliminator between MI and GT.

Preview –

Starting with the former five-time champions Mumbai Indians, the Hardik Pandya-led star-studded franchise repeated past heroics to reach the final four this season. Following another shallow start to the season, Mumbai picked up pace after Jasprit Bumrah’s return, winning matches on the trot and sealing the playoff berth. Though they failed to finish inside the top two, they managed to keep their place intact, aiming to chase the ultimate glory – an IPL trophy.

However, owing to the revised schedule caused by prevailing tensions between India and Pakistan early this month, several first-team players have returned to honour international commitments, with a few new faces joining the franchise just ahead of the playoffs. Their absence could likely hurt the plans heading into this Eliminator.

Moreover, the focus remains on the bowling attack led by Bumrah.

For the longest time this season, Gujarat stayed at the top of the points table. They looked like an unstoppable force unless the tournament resumed following a short break, where they lost matches in clusters and conceded the chance of bagging the top two spot.

Despite having all the arsenal with them, they failed to get past the winning line, even losing to the bottom-placed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their last league game. However, barring Jos Buttler and Kagiso Rabada, GT has secured their overseas players for the remaining matches this season.

Also, considering they have their replacements ready for the playoffs, GT would bank on its run-scoring top-order to get the job done against high-flying Mumbai Indians.

Here are the predicted playing XIs of both teams –

Mumbai Indians - Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Suryakumar Yadav, Charith Asalanka, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and Ashwani Kumar/Karn

Sharma

Gujarat Titans - Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Kusal Mendis, Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Gerald Coetzee, Arshad Khan, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna