Is Jonny Bairstow playing today's MI vs GT IPL 2025 Eliminator match?
With Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans set to face off in the do-or-die IPL 2025 Eliminator game on Friday, a massive focus is on whether Jonny Bairstow will get a game. With Ryan Rickelton leaving the Mumbai camp, Bairstow will open the innings with Rohit Sharma.
The Englishman was signed as a replacement for Will Jacks, who had to leave for international duty. As such, Bairstow has been included for the IPL 2025 Eliminator and is likely to open the innings with Rohit. With Rickelton doing a promising job for the five-time champions in the league phase, the 35-year-old will hope to carry forward it to the remaining matches as Mumbai eye their sixth title.
Having been part of SunRisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings before, the Yorkshire batter has a promising IPL record, aggregating 1100 runs in 50 matches at 34.54 alongside two centuries. He played an instrumental role in helping Punjab Kings' scale a run-chase of 262 against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024 by hammering an unbeaten 108.
Both Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans lost their final league game of IPL 2025
Although Mumbai and Gujarat have had promising campaigns this year, they failed to finish the league stage strongly. Mumbai Indians lost to the Punjab Kings by seven wickets in Jaipur, while the Titans crashed to an 83-run defeat to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
However, the Titans will feel they have wood over the Mumbai Indians due to defeating them twice in the 18th edition. The Titans also have a good head-to-head record against the five-time champions, winning five out of seven matches.
The winner between the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans will face Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2 on June 1 in Ahmedabad. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have already progressed to the final with a commanding victory over Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 on May 29.