MI vs KKR Preview: Mumbai Indians seek first win in IPL 2025 home opener against Kolkata Knight Riders

MUMBAI: In a season where home advantage has become a talking point, the beleaguered Mumbai Indians, whose woes seem to be continuing from the last season, would be desperately hoping to log their first win of IPL 2025 when they play their first home game this season at the Wankhede Stadium, against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday night.
Having just lost to Gujarat Titans on Saturday night to go down 0-2 at the start of their campaign, MI, perennial slow starters, must quickly regroup and reboot before it's too late. To make it worse, their captain Hardik Pandya was fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining slow over-rate against GT. Having already been suspended from the first match due to the same offence in the last game of IPL 2024, Pandya must ensure that he remains careful on this front.
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While they are badly missing world's No. 1 fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who is out due to injury, MI's biggest problem - and it has been for the last few years - is at the top, where their former captain Rohit Sharma has just not delivered as per his reputation. On Friday night, Rohit was dismissed for another single-digit score - his sixth in his last nine IPL innings - in a 36-run defeat - their second consecutive loss - to the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The 37-year-old has endured a miserable time in IPL 2025 so far, being dismissed for scores of 0 & 8. In MI's opening match of IPL 2025 in Chennai, left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed sent him packing for a blob. Against Gujarat Titans, the veteran batter started off well, stroking two boundaries, before Mohammed Siraj, perhaps fired up by Rohit's comments about the pacer leaking runs in white-ball cricket later in the innings while ignoring him from India's squad for the Champions Trophy, unleashed a 'jaffa' to clean up his middle stump with a deadly inswinger.

In the past five IPL seasons, Rohit, India's Test & ODI captain, has crossed 400 only once. It's a period which saw Rohit finally losing the MI captaincy last year - a move which didn’t go down well with the fans, with crowds booing Pandya at various venues in IPL 2024.
Surprisingly, the same Rohit has been in fairly good touch while representing India - just earlier this month (on March 9), he cracked a magnificent 76 to help India beat New Zealand by four wickets in the final of the 2025 Champions Trophy. Rohit's MI woes prompted former England skipper Michael Vaughan to say in jest that the Mumbaikar might find his touch with the bat again if he imagines himself wearing the India jersey rather than that of his IPL franchise.
"He just got to pretend that he has got the Indian blues on and not the Mumbai blues. He is such a good player. For Mumbai to travel the distance this year, he has got to get runs. He has got to get his team off to flyers, has got to get back his confidence, his mojo. I just think Mumbai without Rohit Sharma firing, I don't think they will make the qualification (playoffs). He is one of those few players who can win a game on his own," Vaughan said.

Speaking on Cricbuzz, former India batsman Manoj Tiwary rightly pointed out that it's "high time" that Rohit enjoys a "600-700" run season, which has gone missing in his cabinet for years now.
Rohit's failures are now beginning to put pressure on the other batters. On Saturday night, Tilak Varma scored 39 off 36 balls, while Pandya scratched around for a 17-ball 11. The only ray of hope for MI is the return to some kind of form for Suryakumar Yadav - India’s T20 captain stroked a 28-ball 48 to provide a glimpse of what he can do when at his best. Their new opener, Ryan Rickelton is talented, but the South African will take time to adjust to the Indian pitches. Perhaps, their batters will do better on the Wankhede Stadium pitch where the ball comes on nicely to the bat, thanks to the pace and bounce on offer on the strip.
Beyond Rohit, MI's other worry is the lack of ability shown by a couple of youngsters that they have invested in - Jharkhand's 'keeper-batter Robin Minz, who has been out for scores of 3 & 3, while Andhra pacer Satyanarayana Raju too has endured a bad start to his IPL career, having conceded 53 in four overs in two matches, while taking one wicket. Both Minz and Raju have looked out of depth in a high-class competition like IPL.
The five-time IPL champions have also been hampered by poor selection calls. Just why they didn’t play the 24-year-old left-arm wrist spinner Vignesh Puthur in the second match, after he made an impressive debut with three for 32 against CSK, is beyond comprehension.
On Saturday night against GT, MI's two spinners - Mitchell Santner and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, went for 53 runs in five overs, while taking just one wicket between them. MI also need to find a way to play South Africa's talented pace bowling allrounder Gerald Coetzee, who was a regular in the XI last season.
KKR, on the other hand, will be buoyed by the return of their talisman senior spinner and explosive opener Sunil Narine, who missed the last match due to illness, for this match. In an encouraging sign for the visitors, Narine trained with the team at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Playing in Mumbai, it will help KKR immensely that they are being led by Chandrakant Pandit (head coach) and Ajinkya Rahane (captain), who both know the Wankhede Stadium's pitch and the conditions like the back of their hand. A Quinton de Kock special (97 not out off just 61 balls) helped the visitors score a thumping eight-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in their last match in Guwahati, and they will be hoping that the South African 'keeper-batter continues that sizzling form into this match too.
KKR will also hope to shrug off a controversy which saw them at odds with Eden Gardens pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee over the type of pitch they want in order to gain home advantage.
Fans would hope that the weather Gods remain kind on this mouth-watering fixture, considering that a bit of rain is predicted on Monday by the Met department. Riding on Venkatesh Iyer (70) and left-arm pace ace Mitchell Starc (4-33), KKR had beaten MI by 24 runs when they visited the Wankhede Stadium last year. Considering MI's struggles have stretched to IPL 2025, They will fancy an encore this time.
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