"They might still not play him" - Aakash Chopra on MI ahead of IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 vs PBKS

Former India player Aakash Chopra has opined that the Mumbai Indians (MI) are unlikely to include Charith Asalanka in their playing combination for the IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 against the Punjab Kings (PBKS). He reasoned that MI don't have enticing Indian seam-bowling options, and would have to play an additional overseas seamer, especially if Deepak Chahar isn't available.

MI and PBKS will square off in the penultimate game of IPL 2025 in Ahmedabad on Sunday, June 1. While the winner will face the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the final at the same venue two days later, the loser will get knocked out of the tournament.

Previewing the IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 in a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' the former India opener reckoned that the possibility of dew could decide the decision at the toss, and that Asalanka might still not get a place in MI's playing combination.

"Whoever wins the toss might decide to bowl first. However, if you see the last match, Punjab invited Mumbai to bat first, and they won the game, but Mumbai won the last match by scoring a lot of runs while batting first. I think dew will decide. If dew isn't there, maybe you want to bat first and put a lot of runs on the board," Chopra said (12:30).

"If Richard Gleeson isn't there and we don't know about Deepak Chahar's availability, a few holes are seen in Mumbai's bowling, but they have superpower batting. Interestingly, they didn't play Charith Asalanka in the last match. They might still not play him because there aren't too many options in fast bowling apart from Ashwani Kumar," he added.

Aakash Chopra noted that Satyanarayana Raju, the other Indian seam-bowling option, does not provide the same quality. He added that the five-time champions are unlikely to recall the inexperienced pacer into the side so late in the tournament and will potentially play Reece Topley if Richard Gleeson isn't available.

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"Punjab won that game in style" - Aakash Chopra on PBKS' positive ahead of IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 vs MI

PBKS registered an emphatic win against MI in their final league game of IPL 2025. [P/C: iplt20.com]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra noted that the Punjab Kings' seven-wicket win against the Mumbai Indians in Jaipur on May 26 in their only previous meeting in IPL 2025 would be a positive for the Shreyas Iyer-led side ahead of Qualifier 2.

"Punjab will take a lot of heart from the fact that when these two teams met last time, that too was an important match, it wasn't an Eliminator, but whoever won would have finished in the top two and whoever lost would have finished at No. 3 or No. 4, Punjab won that game in style," he said.

The cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that MI were handed a thrashing despite having a full-strength side available for that game.

"It didn't seem at all that Mumbai had come to compete, and that was the Mumbai that had Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks, and the option of Corbin Bosch. However, they were totally destroyed. They were asked to bat first, and the Punjab Kings did the run chase very easily," Chopra observed.

Aakash Chopra acknowledged that PBKS were handed an eight-wicket drubbing by RCB in Qualifier 1, but noted that they wouldn't think about that, as one wants to draw confidence by looking at good things. He added that MI, similarly, will not think about their loss to PBKS, and instead draw inspiration from their 20-run win against the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Eliminator.