By Chirag - Mar 12, 2025 10:44 AM
Three Indians have been ruled out of the opening matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. These include Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and the stormy bowler of Lucknow Super Giants. The reason why Pandya will be out is related to IPL 2024.
Only a few days are left for the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. After the Champions Trophy, now the audience will be crazy about IPL. The IPL is starting from March 22, whose opening match will be between the current champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). This opening match will be held at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
But there are some updates regarding the initial matches of IPL. After Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, now the latest name to be included is Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) team's fast bowler Mayank Yadav. This is the player who will not play in the initial matches or the first half. At the same time, the reason why Pandya will be out is related to IPL 2024. Mayank Yadav will not be able to participate in the IPL 2025 first half. According to Cricinfo, Mayank Yadav is recovering from a back injury.
Mayank has recently started bowling at the BCCI Center of Excellence in Bangalore. He got injured after making his debut for India in the T20 series against Bangladesh last October. The BCCI has not yet set a specific date for Mayank's comeback, but if he meets the fitness criteria along with his bowling workload, he can play in the second half of the IPL.
Mayank's unavailability in the first half of the tournament is a blow to Lucknow, who had retained him for Rs 11 crore (about $1.31 million) ahead of the mega auction. While he was bought as an uncapped bowler for Rs 20 lakh ahead of the 2024 season. Mayank got such a high price due to his bowling, he consistently bowled at a speed of 150 kmph in IPL 2024.For this reason, he got the Player of the Match award twice in his first two matches in the IPL. Seeing his talent, the national selectors included Mayank in the fast bowling contract list. Mayank's journey in IPL 2024 lasted only 4 matches, during rehab, Mayank suffered a different injury, which delayed his comeback, but he eventually played a T20 match against Bangladesh and made his debut.
The BCCI has not given details about Mayank's injury, but Cricinfo has claimed that Mayank has a stress-related injury in the lower back on his left hand. In February, former India fast bowler Zaheer Khan took over as the LSG team director. Zaheer had later said in a statement that he only wants to bring a fully fit Mayank back to the field. He said that we want him to be 150% fit, not just 100% fit. LSG is set to play its first match of the season against Delhi Capitals in Visakhapatnam on March 24 under the leadership of new captain Rishabh Pant.
There were also reports about Mumbai Indians' key fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah that he may be out of the initial matches of IPL due to a back injury. Bumrah, who is currently undergoing rehab at the BCCI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru, has resumed bowling, but is not fully ready yet. According to the information, he may be fit to join the team in early April, possibly staying out for the first two weeks of the tournament.
Mumbai Indians have to play three matches in March - against Chennai Super Kings on March 23, against Gujarat Titans on March 29 and against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 31. Bumrah may return in the match against Lucknow Super Giants on April 4.
In Bumrah's absence, Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar will lead the bowling attack. Bumrah's recovery is being closely monitored as India has to play a five-Test series in England after the IPL.
Hardik Pandya will not be able to participate in the IPL 2025 first game. However, he will take over the captaincy of Mumbai in the coming season. Since Hardik will be banned in the opening match of IPL 2025, Suryakumar Yadav can be seen captaining in his place.
In fact, while captaining the Mumbai team in IPL 2024, Pandya was found guilty of slow over rate for the third time in the last match. If the captain is found guilty of slow over rate for the first time, a fine of Rs 12 lakh is imposed on the captain. For the second time, a fine of Rs 24 lakh is imposed on the captain and other players of the team are also imposed. On the third time, the captain is fined Rs 30 lakh and the players are fined.
On being fined for the third time, the captain is also banned for one match. This happened 3 times in the 2024 season of IPL under the leadership of Hardik.
Hardik's third mistake regarding slow over rate happened in the third match against Lucknow Super Giants during IPL 2024. Due to this, now he will not be able to play the first match of the upcoming season of IPL.
For IPL 2025, Mumbai retained Jasprit Bumrah (18 crores), Hardik Pandya (16.35 crores), Suryakumar Yadav (16.35 crores), Rohit Sharma (16.30 crores), Tilak Verma (8 crores). Mumbai Indians also have an RTM (Right to Match) card. Which it can use during the IPL mega auction. Mumbai team won the IPL title five times under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
Also Read: Who Will Win IPL 2025? AI Predictions and Analysis
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