Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in an IPL 2025 match in Lucknow on Friday evening (April 4).

MI skipper Pandya said Rohit Sharma is sitting out of the contest after being hit on the knee during nets.

Also read: MS Dhoni likely to captain CSK again

LSG have brought in fit-again Akashdeep Singh in place of M Siddharth.

Before the start of the match, MI’s Suryakumar Yadav was presented with a special jersey bearing number 100 as he is playing in his 100th game for the franchise.

What captains said

After winning the toss, Pandya said, “We are gonna bowl first. It looks like a fresh wicket. Not sure how it is going to play. Looks a decent track. Dew might come in later. I thought it is better to chase. I think we in a group have spoken that we don’t want to talk about the wickets. We are here to play good cricket. That’s the talk we have had. Let’s not talk about the surfaces as a team.”

He added that Jasprit Bumrah should be back soon.

“I think we are pretty confident as a batting unit. A very strong unit. A few of our players haven’t come off including me. We had talked about playing in this fashion (being aggressive at the top) throughout the tournament. The general discussion is to go out there and express yourself. We haven’t talked about a target we want to achieve. Just play the ball, watch the ball and react. I think we are pretty confident. The way I have set up myself. Once we get a start, I will capitalise. Just one change for us. Akash Deep comes in for Siddharth,” LSG captain Rishabh Pant said.

Playing XIs

Mumbai Indians: Will jacks, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (C), Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Vignesh Puthur.

Impact Subs: Tilak varma, corbin bosch, robin minz, satyanarayana raju, karn sharma.

Lucknow Super Giants: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Poran, Rishabh Pant (WK/C), Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan.

Impact Subs: Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Shahbaz Ahmed, M Siddharth, Akash Singh.