Hardik Pandya to miss Mumbai Indians’ IPL 2025 opener due to ban, SKY to lead

Suryakumar Yadav will lead Mumbai Indians (MI) in their Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) opener against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 23 because club captain Hardik Pandya will be serving a one-match ban from last season.

Though long-time skipper Rohit Sharma is part of the squad, the franchise is understood to have decided to go with Suryakumar, who is Team India's T20I captain. Surykumar has been captaining India in T20Is since Rohit retired after last year's World Cup win.

Pandya was penalised for a slow over-rate in MI's final league game against Lucknow Super Giants last year. It was MI's third such offence of the season. "That is out of my control," Pandya told reporters in the pre-IPL press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday.

"We bowled the last over one-and-a-half or two minutes late. At that point, I didn't know the consequences. It is unfortunate, but the rules say it. I will have to go with the process," Pandya said.

Jasprit Bumrah was another potential captain in the MI side, having led India in Tests and T20Is, but the ace pacer has not recovered from a back injury suffered during India's tour of Australia.

"I'm lucky that I have three captains who are playing with me," Pandya said. "I know that there are three different minds who have led India in different formats, and so many years of experience are always there." Five-time champions MI have failed to make the playoffs in three of the last four seasons. They finished the lowest in the ten-team league in 2022 and 2024.