In the 12th match of the IPL 2025, Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) will host Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders (MI vs KKR) match on Monday evening (March 31). Now, we are going through the top choices of Dream11 captains and vice-captains for the forthcoming MI vs KKR match.  

IPL 2025, Match 12: MI vs KKR Probable XIs

In the sixth game of the IPL 2025, the Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders (RR vs KKR) match will be played at Barsapara Cricket Stadium (Guwahati) on Wednesday evening (March 26), which will be the second game for both teams. Here, we are going through the Dream11 top captains and vice-captains for the match. 

IPL 2025, Match 6: RR vs KKR Probable XIs

Rajasthan Royals Predicted Playing 11: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson/Fazalhaq Farooqi (Impact Sub), Riyan Parag (Captain), Nitish Rana, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande

Kolkata Knight Riders Predicted Playing 11: Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora/Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Impact Sub), Varun Chakravarthy

See Also: IPL 2025: RR vs KKR – Weather & Pitch report

IPL 2025, Match 6: RR vs KKR Dream11 Top Captains And Vice-captains

Top 3 Captain's choices

Sunil Narine: KKR legend Sunil Narine is the key name in both batting and bowling line-ups for the defending champions. In their first game of the IPL 2025, despite a slow start, the opener Narine scored a valuable 44 off 26 balls with five fours and three sixes. While he had a century partnership with captain Ajinkya Rahane for the second wicket, disciplined Narine had bowling figures of 4-0-27-1. 

Ajinkya Rahane: KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane is in dream form with the bat. After having a great domestic season, including finishing as a leading run-scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25 (469 runs), Rahane started the IPL 2025 with a strong 56 off 31 balls, including six fours and four sixes. 

Shimron Hetmyer: Caribbean cricketer Shimron Hetmyer is one of the dangerous T20 batters whose strike rate generally stays over 150. He likes to deal with boundaries, which makes his team’s scoreboard busy. In their IPL 2025 opener, while RR were already out of the game, desperate Hetmyer still managed to play a useful cameo of 42 off 23 balls with one four and four sixes.  

Top 3 Vice-captain's choices

Sanju Samson: At least for the first three games of the IPL 2025, RR regular captain Sanju Samson is playing only as a batter while Riyan Parag is leading the side. Although Samson always tends to get dismissed early, his consistency is getting better, and he scored a valuable 66 off 37 balls (seven fours and four sixes) in their season opener against SunRisers Hyderabad despite not getting a good start on their 287-run chase. 

Varun Chakravarthy: KKR spinner Varun Chakravarthy is in great form with the ball. Although he had a tough outing during the first game of the IPL 2025, where he had the bowling figures of 4-0-43-1, it was one of his rare performances in recent times. 

Fazalhaq Farooqi: The Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi is one of the most consistent pacers in T20 cricket since 2024, as he has recorded the joint highest wickets in this period with 89 wickets in 57 innings, including four four-fers and four fifers. The left-arm fast bowler is a key for RR. 

Varun Chakravarthy was the man with the golden arm for team India in the final league match against New Zealand where it all started. But it was not the start it was the redemption that he got back 4 years ago in the 2021 T20 World Cup where he was bashed up by every batsman. He was mocked by everyone with that kind of spell that he doesn't suit for international matches. 

An architect at the age of 26 and left the job to persue his passion for cricket. Though faced hardships where he started his career as fast bowler untill 2017. Due to a serious injury in his leg constrained him to become a spinner though he didn't gived up, learned the spin of art. Which persisted him to vary around the variations and constrain to the game. 

Read More: LSG Fast Bowler Mayank Yadav To Skip First Half Of IPL

The Grooming of Varun Chakravarthy

Chakravarthy started his career as wicket wicketkeeper around school cricket, leaving cricket for his academics, though pursued his passion by leaving his job. He came into the highlight in TNPL where his 9 wickets helped Madhurai Panthers to clinch their first title from there there was no stopping for him. Soon he was into the domestic circuit in 2018 and even he was auctioned in IPL too, where Kings xi Punjab bought him for 8.5 crores. 

He made his IPL debut for Punjab but which didn't went quite well for him he went for 25 runs in his first over after that he was benched and after that season he was released by Punjab. After that he was bought by Kolkata where it all changed he took his first fifer there against Delhi. He was continously knocking the Indian team doors and he got selected for Australia tour but due to injury he was unable to play there. 

Read More: Rahul Ends Captaincy Rumours Axar Patel To Lead Delhi Capitals

The Best Way Of Comeback

Varun Chakravarthy was picked in the squad for the 2021 World Cup and he got to play the game there it was quite a bad tournament for him and India too. After that, he faced wide criticism when he was termed as an IPL bowler and to make things worse he was dropped from the Indian team. This seemed to be the end of him. But Kolkata had a belief in him and retained him too for the 2022 IPL season. He didn't stop there he went back to basics and started working on him soon the results were on cards. 

Despite having a good season in 2023 he was neglected from the team. Then in the next IPL season too he took 21 wickets and made Kolkata Champion. Then he was finally called back to the England series where he performed well. Soon he was selected for the Champions Trophy squad and on the same ground as Dubai he got the chance to play against New Zealand which was the last league match he took fifer and it was perfect redemption where he referred in the presentation ceremony. In the next match, he took 2 wickets in the semi-final and took the important wicket of Travis Head. In the final against New Zealand also he started the proceedings by removing dangerously looking Rachin Ravindra and completed his spell with 2 wickets later India went on to win the Champions Trophy after 12 years of gap. 

30 to win off 30 and South Africa were cruising in the T20 World Cup Finals last year. The game was slipping away until Jasprit Bumrah came with a magical spell to bring the trophy home. He was center stage again during the Border Gavaskar Trophy finishing with 30+ wickets, dominating and single-handedly keeping India through the series. Ruled out though, the Champions Trophy was always going to be a challenge for India. Their strike bowler was gone and India were going in without a trump card seemingly. Dubai though, with its spin allowed India to trust their vintage spin.

Most teams go in with two spinners and maybe a part-timer on conditions that offer a good amount of turn. India, though, started with three to challenge Pakistan and Bangladesh. They then decided that they could do with one more, bringing their final Trump card, Varun Chakravarthy, in to play four spinners. Dubai was helping them with a lot of spin and slowness on tired tracks that have recently hosted the ILT20. From the norm of two spinners and a part timer, India went with not three but four spinners of differing variety. Two of them are left-arm spinners who bat as good as anyone in the top five thus extending the batting line-up to number eight while giving six genuine bowling options. They also went with two wrist-spinners using both hands with a lot of mystery behind them.

In Axar Patel, India had a left-arm spinner who could bowl in the powerplay while also batting at number five gave India a leftie in the middle-order. The other left-arm spinner, Ravindra Jadeja, is among the greatest all-rounders in the game and is a proven master of the middle-overs. In each game he was as quick as ever into his overs, finishing them in less than two minutes giving batters little time to breath. His fielding is an added bonus with the arm as good as ever. Kuldeep Yadav the third one comes with a lot of mystery and woke up as a death bowler in the tournament bowling a fair chunk of his overs in the last ten of the innings. The fourth one, Varun Chakravarthy comes in with mystery of his own. He is relatively new as well in the international circuit and can bowl equally well through the innings.

With the quartet, India were quick in spinning webs around the batters. Solid starts quickly became slow paced with batters struggling to find the boundary or even get the ball past the square for a single. The final was clear evidence of the spinners doing their magic. At 57 for no loss in the 9th over, Will Young and Rachin Ravindra were running away with the game. Varun Chakravarthy though opened the game up with a beauty to get Will Young and Kuldeep Yadav bowled what could be the ball of the Final to get Rachin Ravindra. He picked the wicket of Williamson as well and that set New Zealand into snooze mode. The intent was gone and India had the best men to make the most of it. Axar Patel started but it was Ravindra Jadeja, introduced in the 19th over who got into his rhythm. It was his day as he bowled over after over, hitting the same line and length that made him dangerous for so many years. There wasn't much spin but he was getting it to grip, and being the fastest of the four he was tough to get under. Jadeja rushed through his overs bowling nine unchanged and getting Tom Latham out sweeping. He followed with some energetic chases and rocket throws while finishing the innings at number eight highlighting his value once more in the side.

The middle-overs shift though was not his alone. With Jadeja holding one end, the attacking bowlers took the other ends with Kuldeep, Axar and Chakravarthy rotating. Kuldeep and Chakravarthy had already laid the groundwork with three wickets between them and Rohit Sharma used the three of them beautifully in bursts. It was Chakravarthy who got Glenn Phillips again at the right time with Phillips just getting into his groove heading into the slog overs. The other left-arm spinner, Axar Patel, comes in slightly differently. Taller than Jadeja, he brings in the extra bounce and he was just as good, if not better than Jadeja at applying the squeeze, picking up wickets as well at key points. For Axar though, bowling was not the only aspect. His batting in the top five was equally crucial. He played a key knock in the Final, as the leftie in the middle-order.

With Kuldeep Yadav, India did not miss Bumrah as Yadav took the death overs and bowled them really well. The true trump card though was Varun Chakravarthy who was tough to pick. Teams could not read him as he took nine wickets in the three matches he played. Had he started the Player of the Tournament medal could have well been his. The tournament had a lot of dominance with the batters making marks at different times. The engine room though was clearly the spin quartet, which is something that is very rare to see and something Cricket might not see as often.

Varun Chakravarthy recent spell against New Zealand on going Champions Trophy is been the talk of the town. Reason behind this is India didn't imported any challenging total scored only 249 runs. India batting had a surrel collapse at the start of the innings where they lost their Captain Rohit Sharma and Vice Captain Subhman Gill at early. They were 30/3 at the end of eight over. 

It was Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel who revived the innings which looked completely lost at the beginning, they constructed the innings and laid a good foundation shreyas scored 79 and Axar Patel scored a well made 44 runs. 

Read More: Kolkata Announces Their Captain And Vice Captain Ahead Of IPL2025

Varun Chakravarthy To Take Care Of The Rest

After the departure of these two batsman, Hardik Pandya took care of the innings where he scored a well made 45 from 45 balls. After that rest of the batsman couldn't able to capatilize the momentum and felled like a bunch of cards. Only able to score 249 runs which was not that easy to defend in this modern cricket era. Where 300 plus target are not even safe. Now it was upto the bowlers to defend the given target which was quite hard. 

But these types of matches only decide the true character of the team. Indian bowlers responded quickly and the score which looked cracky was handled by Indian bowlers who bowled out the black caps in 205 runs and topped the chart. It mainly happened due to Varun Chakravarthy Fifer who was quite difficult to read out. His co-partner Axar Patel hailed the performance of Varun describing he is very hard to predict. If you miss those you are packed up. 

Axar On Varun Chakravarthy Brilliance

When asked about Varun Chakravarthy's important spell he said it was indeed some special spell. Chakravarthy in his spell claimed the wickets of opener Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry completing his fifer conceding 42 runs only. Varun Chakravarthy didn't played for India much it was his second ODI match before debuting against England. He has played only 5 T20s claiming 14 wickets. 

Read More: India Remains Unbeaten In Champions Trophy Faces Australia In Semi Finals

Axar goes on to say that the T20 World Cup 2021 was a turning point in his career which depicted his lowest performance, but after that, the comeback he has done is truly remarkable, he has worked on his game and mental strength which is seen in his performance today, he was unreadable he is fast through in his hands if you won't pick him early it means you have been deemed into a spin web. Axar is too restrained about his performance saying he is always happy to contribute to the team's well-being. 

India has overcome New Zealand by 44 runs which was the finest match of Group B. Both teams had a few changes in their team where New Zealand added Kane Williamson and India added Varun Chakravarthy. New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first, India had a shaky start losing Rohit and Subhman Gill earlier. Even the King couldn't hold his innings more and caught out early which dismayed India into serious trouble. Early wicket gainers had huge advantage for New Zealand. 

 New Zealand displayed why they are the most successful team in this Trophy even though they had a slight change in the team. They were proactive in the field, but Shreyas Iyer had different plans. 

Iyer Stables The Innings

Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel started the re-building phase though being an aggressive batter he didn't let the approach down. Even Axar too gave the needy support to the innings. Once they crossed the tuff phases they showed their class. Shreyas reached his well-made 50. But Axar was removed in this process and Rahul backed the innings with Iyer. When everything seemed going well Iyer lost his wicket making well made 79 runs. 

Read More: Ms Dhoni Marks His Last Dance In IPL

 Though India were quite lacking the par score and in quick session they lost Rahul too. It was Hardik Pandya who rescued India from difficult phase scoring 45 runs of 45 balls rest others gave there sub contribution. Though India wasn't able to score 250 runs, they were a run short of that. 

Read More: Jos Butler Pens Down From England Captaincy

New Zealand Fall And Australia On Cards

It looked like an easy chase for the New Zealand team having depth in batting. But when the chase started it was totally vice versa for New Zealand where they lost Rachin Ravindra early. It was a huge plus for India. From there India got a slight gateway entering into the match. Soon Will Young departed giving a surprise to the New Zealand dugout.

It was Kane Williamson who anchored the innings but on the other, he didn't get enough support. At the other end, wickets were failing at regular intervals. Once an innings began to be built it was dismantled early, but Williamson was holding one end fighting like a lone warrior. He made well made 50 but couldn't finish the job for his team. He got stumped by Kl Rahul and after his departure, it was a pile of cards and India won the match by 44 runs, thanks to Varun Chakravarthy who got well made fifer in his Champions Trophy debut. 

 India is having a biggest hurdle on their semi final chart that is Australia who have given really a tuff time to them. Who would have forget Travis Head knock in World Cup final 2023. Will the trend continue it will be seen in mere time. 

India finish on top of the Group A points table in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 after beating New Zealand in the last game of the group stage on Sunday (March 2) in Dubai. 

After New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner chose to bowl first, India scored 249/9 in 50 overs. In reply, New Zealand were all out for 205 runs, as the Men in Blue won by 44 runs. 

ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Semi-final fixtures confirmed

With this result, India finished as the Group A champions with six points, and New Zealand finished in the second place with four points. In the first Semi-final of the tournament, India will face Group B runners-up Australia at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday (March 4). On the other hand, New Zealand will face Group B champions South Africa at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan on Wednesday (March 5). On next Sunday (March 9), the Final will be played either at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (Dubai) if India qualfiy or Gaddafi Stadium (Lahore) if India fail to qualify. The reserve days are available for both the Semi-finals and the Final. 

Also Watch: Virat Kohli does Cristiano Ronaldo celebration during CT 2025 group stage match against New Zealand

Indian middle-order batters played crucial roles

Coming back to the India vs New Zealand match, India lost their first three batters in seven overs as the Men in Blue were struggling at 30/3. Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel handled the early situation very well with a 98-run partnership for the fourth wicket. While Patel scored 42 runs, Iyer scored 79 runs. Also, KL Rahul added 23 runs, while Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja had a useful 41-run partnership for the seventh wicket. While Jadeja scored 16 runs, Pandya scored valuable run-a-ball 45 runs to guide the Indian total to a challenging place. 

Among the New Zealand bowlers, pacer Matt Henry claimed a fifer as he had the bowling figures of 8-0-42-5. 

Indian spinners dominated

In reply, New Zealand batters failed to provide solid answers against the Indian bowlers. Especially, the Indian spinners completely controlled the innings with their tight lines, mainly targeting the stumps. Player of the Match Varun Chakravarthy, who made ODI comeback by replacing Harshit Rana, claimed his maiden ODI fifer as he had the bowling figures of 10-0-42-5. Also, Kuldeep Yadav bagged two wickets (2/56), while Hardik Pandya (1/22), Axar Patel (1/32) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/36) had one wicket each.

Only the former skipper Kane Williamson managed to fight against the disciplined Indian bowlers as the right-handed batter recorded his 12th ODI 50+ score against India. He scored 81 off 120 balls but didn't get any strong support. Opener Will Young (22) and the skipper Mitchell Santner (28) were the only other New Zealand batters to reach the 20-run mark. 

The 33-year-old Indian cricketer Varun Chakravarthy has made his ODI debut in the Cuttack ODI against England and created a new history in Indian cricket.

Leading the three-match ODI series by 1-0 before the second ODI at Barabati Stadium (Cuttack), the hosts India are set to bowl first after losing the toss. In the toss, Indian captain Rohit Sharma confirmed two changes in the playing XI. While the crowd was full of noise with the announcement of former Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s return as a replacement for the young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, Varun Chakravarthy has earned the ODI cap for the first time after the left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav has been rested. 

Varun Chakravarthy becomes second oldest Indian cricketer to make an ODI debut

The leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who has recorded 33 wickets in 18 T20Is, is making his ODI debut at the age of 33 years and 164 days. He is the second oldest Indian cricketer to make an ODI debut and the oldest to make an ODI debut after India’s ODI debut (July 13, 1974). 

Farokh Engineer holds the record for the oldest Indian cricketer to make an ODI debut, as he was 36 years and 138 days old during India’s first ODI (vs England at Leeds on July 13, 1974).

Varun Chakravarthy won the Player of the Series award during home T20I series against England

Varun Chakravarthy already disturbed the dangerous English batters during the recently concluded home T20I series, which India won by 4-1. During that series, Varun picked up 14 wickets in five matches, which was a record number of wickets for an Indian bowler in a T20I bilateral series. His bowling performances resulted in a strong series victory for the hosts, and the leg-spinner won the Player of the Series award, where he took at least two wickets in all the matches. 

See Also: Shaheen Shah Afridi sets unwanted record in Lahore ODI against New Zealand

Oldest Indian cricketers to make ODI debuts

India are ready to return to the ODI format, as they are set for the home ODI series against England in preparation for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. According to media reports, the hosts are set to add the in-form spinner Varun Chakravarthy to the ODI squad for the home series. 

The English white-ball team is reshaping with the Bazball strategy, which completely backfired on them in the recently concluded five-match T20I series against the hosts India, which the hosts won by 4-1. The English batters had no solid answers against the Indian spinners, as the home spinners totally dominated against the dangerous English batters.

Varun Chakravarthy is training with ODI squad

India and England are set for the three-match ODI series, which Nagpur, Cuttack, and Ahmedabad will host on February 6, 9, and 12, respectively. For the ODI series, Varun Chakravarthy has reportedly been added to the Indian squad, which is an award for Varun for his recent strong performances with the ball in hand. He is training with the Indian ODI squad in Nagpur.

Varun Chakravarthy won the Player of the Series award in the recent T20I series

After recording 12 wickets in the four-match T20I series in South Africa last November, Varun Chakravarthy broke his own record of most wickets by an Indian bowler in the bilateral T20I series history after picking up 14 wickets in the five-match T20I series against England at home. Without any doubt, Chakravarthy won the Player of the Series award in the recently concluded home T20I series for performing consistently in the series, where the leggie picked up at least two wickets in every match.

Also Watch: Shaheen Afridi Gets Babar Azam Out for Zero in Practice Match

Varun Chakravarthy can be added to the Champions Trophy squad

Varun Chakravarthy wasn’t in the squad for the upcoming home ODI series against England, which also completely follows India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 (the only exception is Harshit Rana, who is replacing Jasprit Bumrah for the first two matches of the home ODI series against England), which will be played in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, due to his strong performances in the T20I format, Varun has reportedly been added to the ODI squad for the home ODI series against England. He can be even added to the Indian squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy.

Varun Chakravarthy is in great form in one-day format

The 33-year-old Varun hasn’t made his ODI debut yet. In 23 List A matches, the leg-spinner has taken 59 wickets, including four five-wicket hauls, which is really excellent. His bowling average and strike rate in the List A format are 14.13 and 19.80, respectively. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25, the domestic List A tournament, Varun was the joint-second leading wicket-taker with 18 wickets in six games, including two fifers. 

If Varun makes his ODI debut in the home series against England, he will be the second oldest Indian cricketer to make an ODI debut.

Indian leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy is in dream form with the ball as he claimed his second T20I fifer in the Rajkot T20I. By completing 10 wickets in the ongoing home series against England, Varun set up a new world record in T20I cricket.

While India are leading the series by 2-0 at the end of two matches of the five-match T20I series, the Rajkot T20I was a must-win match for England, just like the next two fixtures.

After Indian captain Surykumar Yadav chose to field first, India restricted England to 171/9 in 20 overs. Although India lost the game by 26 runs after scoring 145/9, Varun Chakravarthy won the Player of the Match award for his incredible bowling performance.

See Also: Twitter Reactions: Fans react brutally after India lose Rajkot T20I

Varun Chakravarthy recorded his second T20I fifer

England got a strong start in the Rajkot T20I. Opener Ben Duckett scored a strong 50 as England were once batting on 83/1. However, Indian spinners bowled superbly, as the visitors later found themselves at 127/8. 

Indian spinner Varun Chakravarthy shined once again as he picked up a fifer. He finished the game with the bowling figures of 4-0-24-5, which were the joint second-best T20I bowling figures by an Indian bowler against England. 

Indians with the best bowling figures against England in T20I

Varun Chakravarthy: 1st bowler to record "10 or more wickets in a bilateral T20I series " more than once

With this five-wicket haul, Varun Chakravarthy has recorded 10 wickets in this T20I series, while two matches are yet to be played. In their previous T20I series, which was a four-match T20I series against the hosts South Africa, Varun recorded 12 wickets in four games, India’s record for most wickets in a bilateral T20I series. 

As he has achieved 10 wickets or more in back-to-back T20I series, Varun Chakravarthy created history by recording 10 or more wickets in a bilateral T20I series more than once. There is no other bowler who has achieved it twice.