The Mumbai Indians openers Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton have given a strong start in the IPL 2025 game against the Rajasthan Royals on May 01 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.

After scoring 58 runs in the powerplay, the duo went on to make a 100+ run partnership for the first wicket, scoring fifties each, giving a massive boost for the side in Thursday’s clash.

Ryan Rickelton smashed his fifty on 29 deliveries, which included 6 fours and two sixes. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma‘s fifty came in 31 deliveries.

Despite having a poor start in the ongoing season, Mumbai has stormed into the top-four position of the IPL 2025 Points table after 6 wins out of 10 games and is one of the strong contenders for playoffs.

Meanwhile Rajasthan are playing their must win game to keep their playoff chances alive.

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to Bowl first. Speaking at the toss, Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag said, “We’ll bowl first. We might see some dew later. Usually the wicket settles down a little later at night. Want to exploit that. We’ve kept it very simple regardless of winning or losing.”

“Rahul sir has made it clear, we keep it simple whether we go high or low. Three games ago, the message was we take it one game at a time. If we play to our potential, we know how good we can be.”

“Just want to give everyone the freedom to play their game. Couple of changes, Hasaranga has a niggle, Kumar Kartikeya comes in, Sandy (Sandeep Sharma) bhai has broken his finger so Madhwal comes in,” concluded Parag.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya said, “We would’ve bowled first as well. It has always been about how we can play good cricket. The conversation was always about how we can get better, we’ve spoken about the same and nothing changes.”

“We want to be fearless and not let fear of failure kick in. Don’t decide how much we need to put on, have a set marker but we need to analyze the wicket. Quite confident about batting on this wicket. There hasn’t been much dew around. We go with the same team,” concluded Hardik Pandya.

RR vs MI Playing 11

Rajasthan Royals Playing 11: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (C), Dhruv Jurel (W), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Teekeshana, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaha Farooqi

Mumbai Indians Playing 11: Ryan Rickelton (W), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Naman Dhir, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah