MI make three changes and opt to bat; GT bring in Mendis, Washington

Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain, has chosen to bat first in the IPL 2025 Eliminator against Gujarat Titans (GT).

That decision came a day after Punjab Kings (PBKS) were bowled out for 101 after being sent in to bat in Qualifier 1 at the same venue, but a fresh pitch, with significantly less grass cover, is in use for Friday night's game.

Three players won new caps, with overseas players departing both teams on international duty. Jonny Bairstow and Richard Gleeson, who both have previous IPL experience, make their MI debuts, while Kusal Mendis, who comes into the GT side, makes his tournament debut.

They replaced Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks in the MI side, and Jos Buttler in the GT line-up.

There were other changes too. With the frontline quick Gleeson replacing the batting allrounder Jacks, MI balanced their line-up by bringing in the seam-bowling allrounder Raj Bawa for the swing bowler Deepak Chahar, who may also still be recovering from the hamstring injury while bowling in MI's last game against Punjab Kings. GT, meanwhile, brought in the spin-bowling allrounder Washington Sundar for the seam-bowling allrounder Arshad Khan, possibly with dry-looking conditions in mind.

Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Naman Dhir, 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Raj Bawa, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Richard Gleeson.

Impact subs: Krishnan Shrijith, Raghu Sharma, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley.

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 B Sai Sudharsan, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 M Shahrukh Khan, 5 Washington Sundar, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 R Sai Kishore, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Prasidh Krishna.

Impact subs: Sherfane Rutherford, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Jayant Yadav, Arshad Khan.