Mumbai Indians (MI) are slated to play the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on Friday, May 30. Ahead of the do-or-die IPL 2025 clash, MI have been forced into making a couple of big changes after the likes of Ryan Rickelton, Will Jacks, and Corbin Bosch left for international duty, and they were replaced by Jonny Bairstow, Charith Asalanka, and Richard Gleeson.
When the IPL 2025 resumed in the aftermath of the India-Pakistan border conflict earlier this month, the tournament schedule was expanded by nine days, which led to wholesale player changes for teams across the board. While it isn’t an ideal situation for MI, especially just before the start of the playoffs, Rohit Sharma, the former captain of the team, had fun at the expense of one of the replacement players, who was none other than England international Jonny Bairstow.
Jonny Bairstow is expected to open with Rohit Sharma for MI in remainder of IPL 2025
With Post Malone’s iconic song ‘Circles’ playing in the background, Rohit Sharma sung some of the lyrics to the tune while adding Jonny Bairstow’s surname to it, to which his teammate was having a chuckle as well. It is widely rumoured that Jonny Bairstow is set to open for MI in the Eliminator alongside Rohit Sharma against GT, with this pairing having the ability to demolish the opposition bowling lineup from the get-go.
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Jonny Bairstow has had reasonable success during his time in the IPL, most famously while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the top of the order alongside David Warner a few years ago. It was just last year during the IPL when the right-handed batter played a key role in helping Punjab Kings (PBKS) register the highest successful run chase in league history at the expense of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
In his 50 IPL appearances, Jonny Bairstow has scored 1589 runs at an average of 34.54 and a strike-rate 144.45 with two hundreds and nine fifties.