CSK vs MI Match Preview, IPL 2025: Weakened Mumbai aim to end opener jinx at Chennai-OxBig News Network

It’s El Clsico time in IPL 2025 as Chennai Super Kings welcome arch-rivals Mumbai Indians to Chepauk on Sunday, March 23. Both teams have squared off in famous finals and have 5 titles each to their name, establishing themselves as the big boys in the IPL. Last season, MI and CSK faced off each other only once, and it was some MS Dhoni magic at the end that proved to be the difference, despite a wonderful hundred from Rohit Sharma.

It wasn’t a great season for both teams last time around as Mumbai finished bottom of the table with just 8 points while Chennai missed out on the playoffs in their final league game. Both teams have made changes to their lineup during the mega auction, with Chennai sticking to their old method of banking on senior players. They did bring in Noor Ahmad for big money, who they feel will be their main spinner in the coming years. Noor will have the backing from the returning R Ashwin and the evergreen Ravindra Jadeja.

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For Mumbai, it was all about retaining their Indian core ahead of the auction and bringing in reinforcements in the bowling department. They brought back Trent Boult and got former Chennai boys Deepak Chahar and Mitchell Santner into their mix. While Allah Ghazanfar got injured, they decided to bring in an able replacement in Mujeeb ur Rahman.

Mumbai face uphill task to end opener jinx with no Bumrah, Hardik

MI currently has an unwanted record in the IPL, which is actually a crazy stat at the moment. Since 2012, they have never won their opening match of an IPL season. Funny thing is that all of MI’s 5 title wins have come after this streak started.

While many fans have joked about it in the past, starting with a loss hasn’t really helped Mumbai’s chances since the 2020 season. They have finished at the bottom twice in the last 4 seasons and qualified for the playoffs only once during this time period.

Stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav, during his pre-match press conference, talked to the reporters about this and stressed on how important it is to get that head start.

“It has been different for last 12-13 years, But hopefully we’ll try and change the tide from tomorrow. Starting on a winning note, taking that head start is always important in a tournament. But it’s a long tournament, 14 games plus 2, 16 games.”

“So it’s completely fine. We can always start a new game from the second one. But yeah, obviously it will be a good thing to have a win tomorrow and take that head start into the tournament,” said Suryakumar.

But if they want that head start, they will have to do it without their 2 big guns in Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Bumrah is still recovering from his injury while Hardik will serve a one-match ban. Going into a game of this magnitude and having a bad streak on your back, Bumrah and Hardik will be big misses.

The curious case of MS Dhoni

“Even Sachin Tendulkar is batting as great as he is right now, even at the age of 50 [51]. So, I think there are still many years to go,” said Ruturaj Gaikwad, when he was asked about MS Dhoni’s future in the IPL.

The Thala of Chennai seems to be like the Benjamin Button character and aging in reverse as we seem him each season. He takes care of himself well and brings in a new haircut, making some of the fans jealous as well.

But more than that, Dhoni always finds a way to stay relevant in this CSK side. Last season, he decided to show that he can flip a game in the matter of a few deliveries. Just ask MI about the carnage he caused in just 4 deliveries and scoring 20 runs.

Once again, all eyes will be on Dhoni from the get-go. Everyone wants to see how he will bat, where he will come in and what new tricks he will have this season.