Sandeep Sharma missed the clash between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. RR are currently placed eighth in the points table and they needed a victory to stay in contention for the playoffs, while MI, positioned third with six wins, will aim to strengthen their position in the IPL 2025.
Toss Update
RR skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and elected to bowl first, pointing out the possibility of dew later in the game. He emphasised the importance of giving players the freedom to play their natural game. Meanwhile, MI captain Hardik Pandya stated that his team aims to play fearlessly, without letting the fear of failure getting in.
Sandeep Sharma make way for Akash Madhwal; Wanindu Hasaranga also misses out the clash for RR
Sandeep Sharma missed the clash between RR and MI due to a broken finger, with Akash Madhwal replacing him in the RR playing XI. Wanindu Hasaranga also missed out with a niggle, as the Royals got Kumar Kartikeya in as his replacement. Meanwhile, MI went ahead with an unchanged XI.
What did the captains say?
Riyan Parag, Rajasthan Royals
We’ll bowl first. We might see some dew later. Usually the wicket settles down a little later at night. Want to exploit that. We’ve kept it very simple regardless of winning or losing. Rahul sir has made it clear, we keep it simple whether we go high or low. Three games ago, the message was we take it one game at a time. If we play to our potential, we know how good we can be. Just want to give everyone the freedom to play their game. Couple of changes, Hasaranga has a niggle, Kumar Kartikeya comes in, Sandy (Sandeep Sharma) bhai has broken his finger so Madhwal comes in.
Hardik Pandya, Mumbai Indians
We would’ve bowled first as well. It has always been about how we can play good cricket. The conversation was always about how we can get better, we’ve spoken about the same and nothing changes. We want to be fearless and not let fear of failure kick in. Don’t decide how much we need to put on, have a set marker but we need to analyze the wicket. Quite confident about batting on this wicket. There hasn’t been much dew around. We go with the same team.
Playing XI
Rajasthan Royals
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Impact Subs: Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Kunal Singh Rathore, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kwena Maphaka
Mumbai Indians
Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Impact Subs: Raj Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Robin Minz, Reece Topley, Karn Sharma
