Jonny Bairstow went unsold in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction. Post his surgery in 2022, the aggressive batter had found himself out of England’s team and his performance in the IPL didn’t justify a place either. So teams ignored him in Jeddah and the wicketkeeper-batter went unsold.
Bairstow goes berserk
But destiny had something else planned for Bairstow. Due to a 9-day delay, some foreign players were forced to leave the IPL 2025 due to national commitments. Mumbai Indians (MI) signed Bairstow to replace South Africa’s Ryan Rickelton. And his first match was going to be against the Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2025 Eliminator.
His return to the league couldn’t have been more challenging. But Bairstow was up for it. Opening with Rohit Sharma, he went bang from the start. He took a particular liking to Prasidh Krishna. In the 4th over, he smashed the right-arm pacer for 3 sixes and 2 fours, taking 26 from the over and giving MI the best possible start.
His quick start and two dropped catches of Rohit from Gerald Coetzee and Kusal Mendis meant that Gujarat was on the back foot from the start. Rohit too wasn’t at his fluent best. He needed more time, and Bairstow’s destructive start gave him that. When Bairstow departed for a well-made 22-ball 47 in the 8th over, the stage for a big total was set.
Rohit took charge from there on. He went on to score 81 from 50, his highest score of IPL 2025. Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Tilak Varma chipped in as well and a mammoth 228-run total was posted by Mumbai in the Eliminator.
