MI vs PBKS Preview | Top-two battle comes to head with direct confrontation in Jaipur between Punjab and Mumbai
Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings will play their final league stage games of IPL 2025 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday with a top-two place at stake. This is the first time these two are playing each other this season, with Punjab boasting a history of troubling strong Mumbai sides.
Both Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings will enter the contest on Monday in high spirits, having just lost one each of their last five encounters. The stakes demand the two sides to be at the top of their game too, with the winner guaranteed to finish in the top-two while the loser would most likely have to contend with an eliminator and risk getting knocked out in the very first match of the playoffs.
Mumbai sealed their playoff spot in the previous game with a dominant win over Delhi Capitals which would give them confidence to repeat their antics against the Kings. What makes it worse for the latter is their recent-most outing was against Delhi too, one that ended in the Capitals' favour after they chased down Punjab's 206 with six wickets and three balls to spare.
Form Guide
PBKS: L W W W NR
MI: W L W W W
PBKS vs MI Head to head in T20s
One would imagine Mumbai Indians to have a huge lead in the head-to-head department against Punjab Kings, given how they have won the tournament more times than Punjab Kings have managed to make the playoffs. Yet, the perpetual winners have time and again been upset by their west-Indian rivals, and the two teams could end up with an equal record if Punjab manage to make it six wins in nine encounters since 2020.
PBKS 16-17 MI
Pitch and Weather
Even though the Sawai Mansingh Stadium has historically offered decent grip and help the slower bowlers, this season it has been heavily inclined towards batters. Only once has a team been restricted to under 200 in the last four matches in Jaipur, making it seven innings in eight at a run rate exceeding 10. However, with the venue now planned to host more matches than initially planned, wear and tear of the surface might come into play to once again tilt the scale in the bowlers' favour.
As for the weather, there is nothing to be concerned about with forecasts of clear skies for the encounter. Even though temperatures at the start of the game are expected to read as high as 37°C, the evening is expected to consistently get cooler as it progresses.
Team News
Punjab Kings were bolstered by the return of Shreyas Iyer in his full capacity in their previous encounter after the skipper served as an Impact Player against Rajasthan with a finger injury. The side also saw Aussies Marcus Stoinis and Josh Inglis return to the lineup and blitzkrieg boundary laden cameos, which should be enough to keep Mitchell Owen and Xavier Bartlett out of the setup. Yuzvendra Chahal is expected to slt back in for Praveen Dubey after missing out a couple days ago due to a niggle.
Mumbai Indians, meanwhile, have been one of the more settled teams in the tournament with minimal tweaks to their balanced playing combination. Nothing is expected to change come Monday, apart from the potential addition of Ashwani Kumar instead of Karn Sharma albeit the Jaipur surface should be enough to make Mumbai stick with the leggie.
PBKS Probable XII: Prabhsimran, Arya, Inglis (wk), Iyer (c), Wadhera, Shashank, Stoinis, Omarzai, Jansen, Brar, Arshdeep, Chahal
MI Probable XII: Rohit, Rickelton (wk), Jacks, SKY, Tilak, Dhir, Hardik(c), Santner, Chahar, Karn, Boult, Bumrah
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