Ryan Rickelton thrilled to play alongside Rohit, Bumrah, Hardik in IPL |

South African wicketkeeper-batsman Ryan Rickelton is eagerly anticipating joining Mumbai Indians for the IPL 2025 season, where he will share the dressing room with Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.
Rickelton, who represents MI Cape Town in the SA20, played a significant role in securing the team’s first title with a quick-fire 33 runs off 15 balls.
Mumbai Indians acquired Rickelton at his base price of Rs 1 crore during the IPL 2024 auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“I am extremely excited to make my debut in the IPL. I always wanted to play in the IPL and MI is such a powerful and great franchise so I’m really looking forward to getting there in a few weeks. I can’t wait to get going again,” Rickelton said.
“To play in the same group with Rohit (Sharma), Hardik (Pandya) and Jasprit (Bumrah) and everyone is going to be a great learning curve for me and a hell of an opportunity. So when the time comes, I will definitely be up for it.”
Rickelton was the leading run-scorer in SA20’s second season and maintained his form in the recent edition, scoring 336 runs in eight matches with a strike rate of 178.72.
MI Cape Town secured their first SA20 title by defeating Sunrisers Eastern Cape by 76 runs, after finishing last in the previous two seasons.
“I have been with this team for the last three years. It has always been a comfortable environment. We let ourselves down for the first two seasons but this year just seemed to be clicking a lot more.”
“Going into season 2 was a bit of a change technically and mentally but this year I had a bit more experience and probably more expectations. I just kept more calm at the crease and tried to make the right decisions at the right time. Sticking to the options was the key.”
“Coming from a good summer also helped. I am just trying to keep it as simple as possible and put the opposition under pressure with Rassi (Van der Dussen).”
The 28-year-old cricketer particularly praised MI Cape Town’s bowling coach Mitchell McClenaghan for his behind-the-scenes contributions.
“MI management has been phenomenal this year. Especially Mitch who is heavily under noticed but the stuff he is doing behind the scene, the plans, the amount of cricket he watches. The way he pays attention to bowler’s strength and batters’ weaknesses, he is a proper student of the game. Probably he was like that when he used to play as well.”
“Obviously words come from Robbie (head coach Peterson) as well. The environment has been very relaxed and they are not only pushing us in the right direction but also giving us incredibly good tools to use.”
Rickelton expressed optimism about South Africa’s emerging cricket talent and the opportunities provided by the SA20 tournament.
“We have got a lot of talented cricketers in South Africa and we were begging for a tournament like this just to expose those young cricketers. All guys are also putting their hands up showing that this is a kind of platform where things can change for us.”
“Coupled with the opportunity to learn from the overseas players and overseas coaches and different environments has really made a few of us take their game to the next level.”