Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)
New Delhi: Just moments before the toss, broadcasters announced that Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya will not play in the match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Seconds after the announcement, Suryakumar Yadav – smiling, chewing gum, and wearing the blue and gold jersey – came out carrying a team jersey, shook hands with Ravi Shastri, and then greeted Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel.What followed was a loud cheer from the Delhi crowd when they saw the captain of their T20 World Cup winning team Suriya.The big question was: Why was Suriya leading the team, and why did Hardik miss such an important encounter?The moment Axar won the toss and chose to bowl against it
Mumbai Indians
Talking about his team’s lineup, the focus quickly turned to Syria.“(Hardik Pandya) is not feeling well, he is not looking good, so he was not fit for today’s match.
So he fell into place today,” said Suriya, who was stand-in captain in the Delhi Capitals match.
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Mumbai Indians kicked off their IPL 2026 campaign with a six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.Mumbai Indians brought in Deepak Chahar in place of Pandya.“(On the win over KKR) If you win the first match after 13-14 years, there is a lot of positivity in the camp, we are very happy, but it is completely different here than in Wankhede.
We have to take good responsibility and play a good game here. (On the surface) it looked good, the draw was irrelevant. We wanted to bat first, and they wanted to bat first, but yeah, very happy to bat first. Looks good. We did a good job here of attacking first and defending.
Quite a few changes. Deepak Chahar comes in place of Hardik. Corbin Bush comes in place of Bolte, and this is a tactical change. Bolte had a good game in the last match at Wankhede Stadium.
“And Mitch Santner is coming for God’s sake, Ghazanfar,” Suriya said.
Axar went with the same side against Mumbai Indians. “I chose to bowl first. In the first match at home, I want to see how the wicket behaves. It looks a bit dry, a bit tough. We chased down well in the last match. Chasing the target from 26/4 in the powerplay, it gives a lot of confidence to the group. Even the top order knows that there are batsmen in the lower order who can step up if they fail.”
Playing a home game is always beneficial. DC supporters will cheer us on. “Same team,” Axar said.
the difference:Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): KL Rahul (W), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (C), Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Vibraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickleton (W), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Naman Dhir, Shirvan Rutherford, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit BumrahHere are the effective substitutes for both teams:Delhi Capitals Influential Divers: Ashutosh Sharma, Aaqib Nabi Dar, Sameer Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair.Mumbai Indians Influential Subs: Mayank Markande, Robin Means, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar.