Rajasthan Royals choose to chase in must-win game against Mumbai Indians

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to bowl against Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2025 fixture in Jaipur. Coming into this game from the high of their 14-year-old opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi scoring a match-winning century, they had to deal with a significant setback. Sandeep Sharma, one of their key players, has been sidelined with injury (broken finger), much like their regular captain Sanju Samson (abdominal strain) leaving the team under-strength at an important time.

RR need to win all of their games to stay in playoff contention. Riyan Parag, who is standing in as captain, confirmed another change as well with Wanindu Hasaranga (niggle) out for Kumar Kartikeya. He preferred to chase because he expected some dew later in the night.

Hardik Pandya felt the same way. He will be leading MI at a ground where they haven't won since 2012 but they are on a hot streak, they kind they often get on during the business end of the IPL. Should they turn five wins in a row to six on Thursday, they will go top of the table. Pandya also confirmed an unchanged XI.

MI batting-first XI: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 3 Will Jacks, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Naman Dhir, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

MI's Impact Player options: Karn Sharma, Raj Bawa, Reece Topley, Robin Minz, Satyanarayana Raju

RR bowling-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Riyan Parag (capt), 5 Dhruv Jurel, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Jofra Archer, 8 Maheesh Theekshana, 9 Kumar Kartikeya, 10 Akash Madhwal, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

RR's Impact Player options: Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Kunal Singh Rathore, Yudhvir Singh, Kwena Mphaka