MI opt to bowl; CSK hand debut to teenager Mhatre

Mumbai Indians won the big toss at Wankhede Stadium, and decided to field first in the so-called El Clasico, in IPL 2025. MS Dhoni, the CSK captain, said the dew had already set in, which made it a no-brainer to chase.

A day after the 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi dazzled for Rajasthan Royals as the youngest player to play the IPL, Chennai Super Kings handed out a debut to Mumbai's Ayush Mhatre, now their youngest player at the age of 17 years and 278 days. It was also a T20 debut for Mhatre, who is yet to play T20s for his domestic team Mumbai. He made a big impression with 458 runs at an average of 65.42 and a strike-rate of 135.5 in his debut season in Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic 50-over tournament.

Mhatre replaced Rahul Tripathi, who has averaged 11 and struck at under a run a ball this IPL. CSK resisted the temptation of blooding in the former MI player, Dewald Brevis, whom they drafted in mid-season. Interestingly, they did name R Ashwin in their possible Impact Players. If Ashwin were to be brought in to bowl later, Anshul Kamboj would be the casualty.

Mumbai Indians made a forced change to their side. Karn Sharma split open his hand during the last match, which paved the way for fast bowler Ashwani Kumar. Their bowling-first XI didn't have the name of Rohit Sharma, who was expected to come in as the Impact Player later.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Rachin Ravindra, 2 Shaik Rasheed, 3 Ayush Mhatre, 4 Ravindra Jadeja, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Matheesha Pathirana

Possible Impact Players: Anshul Kamboj, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sam Curran, R Ashwin

Mumbai Indians: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Will Jacks, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt.), 6 Naman Dhir, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashwani Kumar

Possible Impact Players Bench: Corbin Bosch, Rohit Sharma, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, S Raju