When most players arrive in India for their maiden IPL season, they pull on their new franchise's kit for the first time. But for Ryan Rickelton, the royal blue and gold trim of Mumbai Indians (MI) was reassuringly familiar.
Rickelton has spent three seasons playing for their affiliate MI Cape Town in the SA20, where all six teams are run by IPL owners. Surprisingly, he is the only South African to have played matches for the same franchise in both leagues this year, a route that will surely become increasingly familiar as the global game evolves.
Aged 28, Rickelton is a relatively late newcomer to the IPL but has made significant strides under the guidance of MI Cape Town's batting coach, Hashim Amla, and is the leading run-scorer in the SA20's brief history. While the two teams' squads are very different, the crossover in support staff has been beneficial for Rickelton since he arrived in India.
"It's been a nice introduction into the group, the family - and obviously meeting Akash [Ambani, the MI owner] and everyone as well," Rickelton said. "It's not just coming in blind, so it has been an easier transition. But the IPL is a different beast on its own, so to mentally work my head around that is a bit of a different one for me… Luckily, I've got a few familiar faces around."
After starting IPL 2025 with scores of 13 and 6, Rickelton hit 62 off 41 balls on Monday night in his first innings at the Wankhede. A target of 117 was never likely to prove challenging, but his attacking intent secured an eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) with 43 balls to spare - enough to put MI's net run-rate firmly in the black, despite starting the season with two defeats.
"Opening the batting for Mumbai Indians with Rohit Sharma, there's always going to be pressure internally and obviously externally as well," Rickelton said. "Hardik [Pandya, the captain] was emphasising today, 'Raise intensity, this is our home ground.' We needed to be better and obviously we couldn't be zero [wins] from three [games]."
Rickelton believes that the IPL brings with it "a lot more pressure" than the other franchise leagues he has experienced. "The standard is incredibly high, and the conditions are all changing," he said. "A year ago, [you] turn on the television and teams are getting 260 and you think it's a free-for-all, but you come out and it's actually not that easy.
"Different grounds have unique characteristics. The pressure factor internally is big, but externally is huge. You're playing with some of the world's best players, not just in this team but around the country, so that extra pressure is there and it's hard. I'm not going to lie: it's hard. [I'm] just trying to find my way through that, and trying to adjust my game in order to give the team the best chance of being successful."
Rickelton was bowled off his inside edge in his first two IPL innings, and joked: "I was just trying to not chop it on, in all honesty." But after two streaky boundaries early in his innings, he grew in confidence and hit three leg-side sixes off Sunil Narine - with the second bringing him a 33-ball half-century.
"I was a bit nervous," he said. "I just really wanted to get a score and just ease the nerves down. It was a relatively low total [target], so I knew I could afford a bit of time and just give myself those extra couple of balls… I felt like if I could face 18-20 balls, I'd have some kind of impact on the game and luckily I managed just to get through. It wasn't as fluent as I'd have liked it to be, but I'll take it.
"It was a massive relief, in all honesty. Our first two games were tricky, on some tough wickets. To get out here in Mumbai and have Spencer [Johnson] turn me inside out was quite a tough battle to get through, but once I managed to get through that it was really pleasing to get a score - but relief, more than anything, and to get two points on the board is great for the team."
The extra bounce at the Wankhede compared to most IPL pitches should provide Rickelton with some home comforts this season, but his main challenge will be to have an impact on the road. Next up for him is a trip to the league's lowest-scoring venue over the last three years, as MI face Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) away on Friday night.