It was a disastrous start to the IPL 2025 campaign for Mumbai Indians star batter Rohit Sharma as he was dismissed for a duck during the match against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday. In the very first over of the match, Rohit tried to flick a delivery from Khaleel Ahmed towards the leg-side but ended up completely miscuing the shot. The ball went straight to Shivam Dube at mid-wicket who made no mistake in completing the catch. This was the 18th duck for Rohit Sharma in IPL - the joint-most by any batter along with Australia's Glenn Maxwell and former Indian cricket team star Dinesh Karthik.
Most ducks in the IPL
18 - Rohit Sharma*
18 - Glenn Maxwell
18 - Dinesh Karthik
16 - Piyush Chawla
16 - Sunil Narine
Meanwhile, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and opted to bowl against MI.
Another chapter in the IPL's 'El Clasico' will unfold at Chepauk, with two of the most decorated sides in the cash-rich league squaring off against each other in a fierce contest.
MI will be without its skipper, Hardik Pandya, and top pace gun, Jasprit Bumrah. In Pandya's absence, Suryakumar Yadav has taken the leadership role.
After winning the toss, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said, "We are bowling first. Playing on this pitch for the first time, so I don't really know how it will play. So we just want to adapt and chase accordingly. Looks a good wicket to bat. The prep has been good. We had our young wicket-keeper coming back early to the camp. Noor, Ellis, Rachin and Sam Curran are the overseas."
Mumbai Indians stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav said during the time of the toss, "I am good with batting first. We had a lovely camp back home, we were here 2-3 days before. Both are unbelievable franchises in terms of achievements. I am sure it will be a good game. Rickleton, Jacks, Santner and Boult are the four overseas."
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Deepak Hooda, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, MS Dhoni(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Nathan Ellis, Khaleel Ahmed
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Satyanarayana Raju
(With ANI inputs)