IPL 2025: Conway, Gaikwad Vs Rohit And...? CSK And MI's Data-Driven Openers Analysis

Probuddha Bhattacharjee

Rohit Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad-Devon Conway [Source: @CricCrazyJohns, @ShuhidAufridi/x.com]Rohit Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad-Devon Conway [Source: @CricCrazyJohns, @ShuhidAufridi/x.com]

The Indian Premier League presents one of the best platforms for high performance cricket in the world. The engagement of the fans with the tournament has given birth to some cult follower base of the teams and hence some great rivalries. One of the biggest rivalries in the IPL is between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings.

The Chennai Super Kings dominated this clash and the league in the initial stages of the tournament. However, the Mumbai Indians caught up under Rohit Sharma's leadership and snatched away the bragging rights from their rivals. The fact that both teams have won the IPL five times makes the fan arguments and banters even more fierce. 

During the auction for IPL 2025, both the teams maintained their authenticity and gave their best to build the perfect squads. The managements took special care to secure the services of the best players for each role. In this article we will take a look at the probable opening pair of the two teams and try to find the answer as to which pair will be the more impactful one.

Mumbai Indians Probable Opening Pair For IPL 2025

Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton

The former captain and star player of the Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma, is bound to be one of the openers. The most probable partner with Rohit is expected to be the young South African keeper-batter, Ryan Rickelton. Rickelton has impressed with his skills in the SA20 and then in the international arena. Given that they spent INR 1 Cr for him and selected him to be a part of the team points to the fact that Rickelton will eventually by Rohit's partner during IPL 2025.

Chennai Super Kings Probable Opening Pair For IPL 2025

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway

Ruturaj Gaikwad led the CSK in IPL 2024 and was their first retention for the next season. He has been playing the role of their opener consistently for nearly four seasons. Hence he will be the first opener of the team. 

Devon Conway played a special part in CSK's title winning run during the IPL 2023 season. This two players have already batted together and are a tested pair. So, there is little doubt that CSK will be going with the Gaikwad-Conway combination at the top during IPL 2025. 

Rohit-Rickelton vs Ruturaj-Conway: Which Pair Is Better?

As far as the stats for Ruturaj and Conway is concerned, we have enough sample size and we will consider that. However, Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton have not played together yet, so, in this case we will take their individual datas. In case of Rohit Sharma we will consider his stats as an opener in IPL and in case of Ryan Rickelton, we will consider his general T20 stats.

The comparison between the two pairs will be done on the basis of three things - consistency, scoring rate and boundary hitting abilities in the powerplay. So, let us delve deeper and see which pair is better - 

MI vs CSK Comparison of probable opening pairs [Courtesy: Data Wrapper]MI vs CSK Comparison of probable opening pairs [Courtesy: Data Wrapper]

Inference

In the above study, RPI refers to Runs Per Innings, SR refers to Strike Rate or Scoring Rate and BPB refers to Ball Per Boundary in the powerplays. 

Run Per Innings - In case of the Runs Per Innings, we see that CSK's opening duo is way ahead of the MI pair. This means that Ruturaj and Conway promise more consistency at the top of the order than Rohit and Rickelton.

Strike Rate - When the Strike Rate of the two pairs is considered, in that case too, the CSK pair is ahead of Rohit and Rickelton. So, it is understood that Ruturaj and Conway can score at a quicker rate and have done it on a consistent basis than Rohit and Rickelton.

Balls Per Boundary - In this case, we have taken the datas of the two batters involved in the partnership during the powerplays. The study reveals that the MI pair take fewer balls to hit a boundary than the CSK duo. In this case Rohit and Rickelton have the edge over Ruturaj and Conway.

Final Conclusion

CSK's opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway take the lead in two of the three parameters that have considered in this comparison. Going by the stats and datas considered here, we can say that CSK have the better opening pair of IPL 2025.