Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai Indians (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary)
Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2026 Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium.Mumbai Indians chose to play on what appears to be a slightly greener surface than usual at Wankhede. It is worth noting,
Suryakumar Yadav
He is not part of the starting lineup and is expected to emerge as an influential player later on.
He watches
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Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c),
Cameron Green
Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Th), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy,
Sunil Narine
Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Nima MuzarabaniMumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickleton (W), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (C), Shirvan Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.Speaking during the toss, Pandya explained the decision to bowl first and expressed confidence in his team.
“We are going to play. It looks like a good track, it looks greener than it was before. Let’s see how it plays. This is our fortress, the crowd is behind us and we are looking to play a good game. We started a couple of weeks ago, we have a lot of experience and a mix of youth. Rohit, Suriya, Mitchell Santner – so there is no shortage of leaders; I’m just excited to go out there and perform. We will go with 6 batting and 5 bowlers.”
“On the other side is the KKR captain
Ajinkya Rahane
He admitted that he would have preferred to play first too, given the unusual grass cover on the pitch.
reconnaissance
Which team do you think has the better bowling attack?
“We were looking forward to bowling, we have never seen this amount of grass in Wankhede. The preparations have been good, two camps have been held in Kolkata and Mumbai as well. Know that MI are a champion team and we are looking forward to playing against them. Just stay in the moment and don’t look back. There are some injuries – we will go with 6 bowlers and 5 bowlers,” he said.
Four foreign players – Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Sunil Narine and Blessing Muzarabani.
“Mumbai Indians also handed out international debuts to AM Ghazanfar and Shravan Rutherford, while Shardul Thakur marked his return to the franchise.Interestingly, MI will look to break a long-standing trend, as they have not won their opening match of the IPL season since 2012.
