Mumbai Indians (MI) will be without the services of their captain, Hardik Pandya for their first match of IPL 2025. The star all-rounder was confirmed as MI's captain for the upcoming season but he will miss his first game of the new season. The 18th season of the T20 league will kick off on March 13.Hardik will miss MI's first match of IPL 2025 due to a slow over-rate ban. The BCCI now takes strict action against captains and players for not completing overs in the stipulated time. In case of a first-over rate offence, a captain is fined Rs 12 lakh.The captain is fined Rs 24 lakh if there is a second over-rate offence. In case of a third over-rate offence, the captain is banned for one game and fined Rs 30 lakh. The players are also fined after the first over-rate offence.Hardik-led MI failed to complete their overs in the stipulated time in their last league stage game of IPL 2024 against Lucknow Super Giants. As a result, Hardik will have to serve a one-match ban in IPL 2025.MI retained Hardik before the IPL 2025 mega-auction and confirmed that he would lead the team in the next season. Apart from him, the five-time IPL Champions retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma.Who will lead MI in Hardik's absence?MI didn't have a vice-captain in IPL 2024 and it remains to be seen who leads the team in Hardik's absence. Since Suryakumar Yadav is the present T20I captain, he leads the race to captain MI for the second time in his career.Suryakumar captained MI for the first time in IPL 2023. Rohit played that game as an Impact Player. Bumrah has never captained MI. He is the vice-captain of the Test team and has led the team in three games.