After twelve games in the 2025 IPL season, the standings are starting to take shape. The famous Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai is set to host its first match of the season, where the Mumbai Indians (MI) will face the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), on Monday. Both teams have played two games so far, but their experiences have been quite different.
Led by Hardik Pandya, MI has lost both of their matches, which is not the best start. In their opening game, they fell to the Chennai Super Kings by four wickets in Chepauk. They were missing their captain, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah, who is injured and won’t be back for the first few games. Even with Pandya back in the lineup, they couldn’t pull off a win against the Gujarat Titans on Saturday.
KKR kicked off their season with a loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), losing by seven wickets. But they bounced back in their next game, comfortably defeating the Rajasthan Royals for their first win of the season. Captain Ajinkya Rahane knows the Wankhede conditions well and will be looking to keep MI’s struggles going in this important match for the home team. Last season, KKR had the edge over MI in both meetings, especially with Venkatesh Iyer performing well. They’ll be aiming to do something similar again, while MI will come into this match with a fresh outlook.
Playing 11 for MI vs KKR
Mumbai Indians
RD Rickelton (wk), Rohit Sharma, SA Yadav, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, HH Pandya (C), Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Satyanarayana Raju, DL Chahar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Kolkata Knight Riders
Q de Kock (wk), RK Singh, Ajinkya Rahane (C), VR Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, AD Russell, SP Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, H Rana, SH Johnson